Add Seibert Straughn to the list of those who don’t want to see Barbados’ premier athletics meets abandoned this year.
Contrary to the belief of some observers, the National Sports Council (NSC) chairman said both the Powerade Barbados Secondary Schools Athletic Championships (BSSAC) and the Pine Hill National Athletic Primary School Championships should be staged next school term once the National Stadium is ready.
Straughn made the call during a press conference Friday to outline the reasons for the delay in relaying the track.
“This is just going to be a one-off thing. It’s not something that is going to happen every year but I think it is vitally important that we have a competition for our athletes this year,” said Straughn, a former Olympic 400-metre runner.
“If it is a reduced schedule, then I think that is something we need to look at, but the important thing is that there must be dialogue. I hope that all of us come back to the table, BSSAC, NAPSAC and let’s sit down and thrash this out because it can happen.
“I think there is a window of opportunity this year to have the inter-school sports and the NAPSAC early in the third term.”
The NSC chairman’s comments came in response to the outcry from some principals who argued against having either competition in the third term due to internal and external exams.
This coming after the organizing bodies of both NAPSAC and BSSAC decided not to have the meets this term when they were informed that works on the stadium track won’t be completed by mid-May.
In spite of that delay, Straughn said he was “quite pleased” with the work being done after a recent site visit, and said he would prefer everything to be in order instead of the works being rushed to meet a March deadline.
“The most important thing is that we want the new track to[ be finished],” aadded Straughn, who is also physical education teacher at Foundation.
“Speaking to the supervisor of C.O. Williams, he said the work will be soon completed, so I’m confident that we will get our new track pretty soon, [but] we don’t want to stick to any date because things can happen from one thing to the next.
“I can speak as a physical education teacher too, because it affects my kids, but I don’t think that it will stop me from trying to prepare my athletes to do the best they can.”
The NSC offered Blenheim as an alternative venue so as to have both meets completed as scheduled but the two bodies rejected the site with concerns over security.