The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemeddia.net

AS the North American, Central and Caribbean (NACAC) prepares for its election of officers next year, Michael Sands said he’s been pleased with his tenure so far in office.

However, while speaking to the media during the Year in Review session yesterday at the NACAC office in the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium, Sands declined to say whether or not he will be seeking another four-year term in office.

Since being elected on Tuesday, July 2, 2019 at the NACAC Biannual Congress at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Queretaro, Mexico, Sands said they had a very good year and he was quite pleased with the performances from the athletes in the region on the global stage.

“As the area association responsible for the athletes that we have in our system, who we refer to as the best athletes in the system, as you know when we look at the results, our performances at the World Championships was excellent and there were several world records broken that could be attributed to the NACAC athletes,” Sands said.

“We also had our NACAC Senior Championships, which was also a very successful event and we just completed our kids athletics programme in Santo Domingo that saw 19 member federations attend that. We are also now in the process of putting together our technical officials course. As we speak, we have five women from our region on the Gender Leadership Workshop in Poland.”

To ensure that NACAC stays on the cutting edge, Sands revealed that there are plans to host a coaches’ seminar, which will be both in person and online and there are also plans for a multi-events camp that will be staged in the southern region.

And even though they were challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic during his tenure, Sands said NACAC never stopped working and it showed in the performances of the athletes, based on the efforts put in by the coaches who work with them.

As the representative for NACAC at the global level, Sands said he’s also looking at sitting around the table when World Athletics, the governing body for the sport, holds its annual Council Meeting in Rome.

He will be joining World Athletics’ Council Members Alberto Juantorena from Cuba, Abby Hoffman from Canada, and Willie Banks from the United States.

“We collaborate with each other once there’s issues on the table so that our position is representative of our member federations,” Sands said.

“So it’s been a good road, it’s been a little rough road, but it’s been fun.

“So when you are enjoying what you do, you don’t feel it, so I’m thankful to be able to occupy this position and I hope to continue for as long as they would have me.”

Sands, however, is also grateful to the Almighty God for saving his life during a health scare in Grand Bahama in August during the NACAC Senior Championships where he had to be rushed and treated at the Rand Memorial Hospital for dehydration.

“It was a little challenging. I didn’t realise, I guess, initially we thought at first it was a case of dehydration, heat exhaustion, which was, but some things happen for the better,” declared Sands, who admitted that his body just slowed down abruptly.

“I must, first of all, give all the credit to the attention that I received in Grand Bahama with the doctors at the Rand and the doctors at Sunrise Medical and all of the medical persons who came to my aid in Grand Bahama to allow me to be back on my feet, feeling much stronger than I ever felt before.”

As the NACAC prepares for the elections next year, Sands said he’s looking that far ahead because there’s still a lot of work to be done and he hopes that his efforts will speak for itself so that he won’t have to go back and campaign like he did leading up to the 2019 elections.

“I think if you’re consistently doing what you’ve been elected to do, then there’s no need to scurry on later on to say ‘Am I going to run, should I run,’” he stated. “Persons have raised the question, but let me put it this way.

“What I often say is that I do what I do and I like what I do and as long as persons believe that I am capable of making that contribution, then the choice is theirs.”

Quite satisfied by his efforts, along with his general secretary Keith Joseph, and the council members, Sands said he’s confident that they were able to do a job that warrants the 31 full fledge members, or 36 member countries, to give their support for another four-year term in office.

Looking back at his tenure in office, Sands said the highlight would have been the ability to bring the NACAC Senior Championships to the home of the NACAC office, albeit in Grand Bahama.

He expressed his gratitude for the Bahamas Government for partnering with NACAC to make it happen along with the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations and the people of Grand Bahama. “The championships saw the most number of athletes that participated ever, which was 415, the most number of countries with 28 countries, the most records broken, which was 23 and so that is attributed to all of the efforts put together collectively,” Sands said.

He also commended Bahamasair for assisting in providing a direct flight from Havana, Cuba to take the athletes directly to Grand Bahama and for the two chartered flights from Miami, Florida that brought in the rest of the contingent of athletes and officials from Florida.

Next year, the focus will switch to New Providence when the BAAA hosts the 50th edition of the CARIFTA Games that will coincide with the 50th Independence celebrations of the Bahamas and the 50th celebrations of CARICOM with Prime Minister Philip Davis as the chair of CARICOM.

“We would want to make this one of the best CARIFTA ever,” Sands said. “Obviously, Jamaica is not going to come lying down. The Bahamas will have its challenge. All of the countries will have its challenges, but I think that the BAAA in conjunction with the Bahamas Government, is having a talent search to make a huge improvement for Team Bahamas.”

Sands encouraged the Bahamian people to get ready to support NACAC, the BAAA and the athletes as the games are staged during the 2023 Easter holiday weekend at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium.