AAB ready for another busy season

With schools’ track and field meets stepping into high gear and the first major events of the local athletics season upcoming, Public Relations Officer of the Athletics Association of Barbados (AAB), Esther Maynard, said she is satisfied with the early progress being made.

Speaking to Barbados TODAY, Maynard says she’s happy to see so many athletes being registered, and people looking forward to the season.

“If you’ve seen our schedule, you realize it’s quite a busy one locally as well as internationally, and there are lots of international meets of various sizes as well as age groups and things like that, which athletes will be looking forward to, particularly CARIFTA. 

“As you know, CARIFTA is a very special event, particularly for athletes looking for scholarships and looking to go overseas. We have lots of coaches that are interested in it and they follow the athletes from our website as well. That will be another plus, where young athletes can get more exposure while looking for scholarships,” Maynard said.

The veteran track and field administrator is also hopeful the new synthetic track at Wildey will soon be completed, to ease the reliance on the Usain Bolt Sports Complex.

“We’re still not yet in our own home, but we’re looking forward to before the end of the year, being able to access the new facility that’s being put down in the Wildey area, which is slated to come online pretty soon,” Maynard said.

Maynard also addressed concerns which had mounted in recent weeks, over the condition of the track at the Usain Bolt Complex, which was relaid last season.

“Well, there were some minor things with the track, which they were addressing, but as of now, we have an all go where that is concerned,” she disclosed.

“I don’t know if we need to leave out any particular lane, but we have to make the best of what we have, and we have to appreciate the tremendous support athletics has had, particularly over the last maybe seven years, in taking up the slack when we were without an adequate facility elsewhere. We’re very much in cooperation with them.”

In addition to the CARIFTA Games in Grenada, the CAC Games in the Dominican Republic and the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow Scotland, are some of the more high profile track and field meets this year.

“There are other meets that some athletes will get invited to, because, as I said, a lot of overseas coaches track athletes even before the season starts. They know what they’ve finished the year with last year, and they’re looking forward to tracking them to see how, how they’ve improved and things like that.

“I think it’s going to be a good year and later when we can access the new facility in Wildey, that will also give athletes an opportunity to not rely on the Usain Bolt Complex for training or their own school grounds for training. They will then be able to deal with that in a supervised way and they wouldn’t have to travel such long distances to train. It will be a boost for the schools as well in the Christ Church St. Philip areas,” Maynard said.

Mayard says the AAB’s new junior development program which was launched last year, will continue to play a big role this season

“We will track the new ones coming in, as well as the ones that were in there from last year, because it’s not a static thing that you come in and that’s it… new athletes join the age group and come in and we will see.

“I think we’ll even get better progress this year and we will see the benefit of that vibrant program and the various seminars and workshops that they’re having for particular events. So, if a school doesn’t have all the facilities or the people specialising in the particular area that the athlete works in, there is the outlet of going into the junior development program and making a smoother transition as they go through the age groups,” Maynard explained.