SPRINGER MEMORIAL’s title defence is already coming under fire.
Inter-School Sports’ perennial queens will have to look for a new training ground less than two months before seeking an unprecedented 13th title, after Tuesday’s scary shooting incident at Blenheim forced them to abandon the St Michael venue.
An inside source said that no decision had been made on a possible replacement site for the Blenheim ground, which has served as the school’s training base for decades now.
This comes as Springer’s school sports is set to resume with Thursday’s semi-finals at the National Stadium.
“There are a lot of things still up in the air, but the most important thing is the children,” the source told the DAILY NATION.
“Measures have been put in place to deal with those children though because it was obviously a very traumatic event.”
Three teachers and about 150 students had to lie flat on the ground when gunshots were heard at the western end of the playing field on Tuesday morning.
Nicky Boyce, 23, who was being chased by an assailant, was hospitalised at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital fter injuries to his right hand and lower back.
It’s the second time in two months that an unrelated shooting incident has brought an early end to a sporting activity involving girls at Blenheim.
Back in November, a women’s football league match between Pro Shottas and the National Sports Council finished prematurely, with the sound of gunshots sending spectators scurrying for cover.
The Women’s Committee of the Barbados Football Association also took the decision to abandon Blenheim as a venue for matches following the incident.
Springer Memorial have finished atop the girls’ Inter-School Sports leaderboard for eight straight years after Combermere School originally ended their streak of four successive victories in 2002.
