Hailed as a visionary, Barbadian Austin Sealy was honoured during the Opening Ceremony of the 42nd edition of the BTC-sponsored CARIFTA Games here at the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium on Good Friday.
In his address, Bahamian Prime Minister Perry Christie, saluted Sealy for “creating a competition which became a model” across the world.
Sealy was presented with a special edition Austin Sealy Award and thanked the people of The Bahamas in his brief remarks.
At the 40th edition of the Games in Montego Bay, he was also honoured there and given the keys to the city.
Christie pointed out that CARIFTA was meant to enhance the relations among English-speaking countries of the region after the dissolution of the West Indies Federation, and has become the breeding ground for most of the region’s world class athletes like multiple Olympic champion Usain Bolt, world and Olympic champion Yohan Blake and javelin Olympic gold medallist Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago.
Pointing to the hundreds of children standing on the field for the parade of nations, Christie said to truly understand what spectators were seeing, was to note that Walcott went from being the gold medallist at CARIFTA last year to the gold medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Similarly, other champions or Olympic medallists like Jamaican Veronica Campbell-Brown; Kim Collins of St Kitts and Nevis; Grenadians Alleyne Francique and Kirani James; Barbadian Obadele Thompson; the Bahamian Golden Girls from Sydney 2000 and the 2012 Golden Knights of the 4×400 metres all came through this meet.
“[That] CARIFTA is an integral part of producing world class athletes speaks to the caliber of the competition. Athletes at CARIFTA represent the future of the Caribbean athletics and some will be future world and Olympic champions,” he said.
For this reason, it was important to nurture the young children who showed talent in athletics.
Meanwhile, Minister of Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Daniel Johnson said the newly opened stadium had come to represent the future of sports in The Bahamas.
Built at a cost of $200 million (US $100 million), Johnson said the 15 000-seat complex, which is on 450 acres of land was a modern facility for training and competition and they owed a “great debt of gratitude” to the People’s Republic of China.