Last week Thursday night hundreds of athletes across the region breathed a sigh of relief when it was announced that Jamaica would be hosting the 2011 CARIFTA Games.
This brought to an end months of speculation and anxiety for athletes and coaches alike.
Both groups went about their business hoping the games would go on as scheduled from April 23 to 25, but this could have all been in vain.
Now, the organisers in Jamaica have less than two months to pull together the region’s top developmental athletics meet, while juggling preparation for the Jamaica International Invitational two weeks later.
Unbelievable! Inconceivable! Unacceptable!
Isn’t the baseball World Series played every October?
Isn’t the FIFA Football World Cup held every four years?
Don’t the Summer Olympic Games also captivate the world every four years?
Then why was there so much uncertainty surrounding these games?
It was known since last year that original hosts St Kitts had withdrawn, but then the carousel began.
Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago both said they were not in a position to host.
Just when everyone thought The Bahamas were going to do it, they stepped aside and suddenly Turks and Caicos, Martinique and Guadeloupe were thrown into the mix.
An institution
After 39 years, the CARIFTA Games isn’t just a track and field meet. It is an institution.
Ironically, the whole region knows that Bermuda will be staging the games in 2012, but for a while, no one knew if these games were going to be cancelled for the first time in 40 years.
It doesn’t matter that it was started right here in Barbados by a Barbadian; it is a regional institution of which all Caribbean people should be proud.
So countries should have no less than two years to prepare for it.
At each congress, a host country and an alternate should be announced.
Countries should also be required to give ample notice of their inability to host the games, so that the alternate can start preparing with adequate time.
The CARIFTA Games are no longer a meeting between Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica.
Founder Austin Sealy – who has never received the recognition at home nor abroad for these games – couldn’t have envisioned the way the CARIFTA Games have grown from a handful of athletes in 1972 to hundreds in 2010, with more than 20 countries taking part.
The importance of these games to the development of track and field in the region and the world can’t be overstated.
The list of athletes who have participated points to a who’s who of track and field royalty in the region. Indeed, all of the region’s top athletes over the past 40 years, with the exception of Asafa Powell, came through the CARIFTA Games.
Just take a quick glance at the ones who spring readily to mind: Merlene Ottey, Ato Bolden, Obadele Thompson; the Bahamian Golden Girls – Eldece Clarke-Lewis, Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie, Pauline Davis-Thompson, Sevatheda Fynes and Chandra Sturrup; Maurice Smith, Andrea Blackett, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Sherone Simpson, Kerron Stewart, Leevan Sands, Dexter Lee, Yohan Blake, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price, Melaine Walker, Ryan Brathwaite, and triple Olympic record holder Usain Bolt.
Logistics
The CARIFTA Games are not a seven-a-side tournament where you drag together a few players for a weekend jaunt on the football field.
It is a massive logistical undertaking requiring advanced planning for accommodation and meals; air and ground transportation; training schedules; competition schedules and so much more. Â
Whatever politics may be at play in the athletics’ boardrooms across the region, the athletes should not be made to suffer and we certainly hope this never happens again.
Then again, who am I to point fingers?
If Barbados had a proper National Stadium and track, there is no way authorities here would have left any doubt that Austin Sealy’s legacy was in danger.
• Sherrylyn A. Toppin is a NATION reporter and can be reached at [email protected]
