Lack of interest hurting ninja sport

Founder of the Barbados Ninja Throwdown (BNT), Delano Hinds, is contemplating whether to carry on the event. He has expressed his disappointment with the lack of interest being shown locally.

Hinds said he has done everything including building a gym at the BNT course located in Featherbed Lane, St. John. He also offered free gym sessions and yet Barbadians are not grabbing hold of the opportunities.

In a telephone interview with Barbados TODAY, Hinds thanked the sponsors and all those who had helped him build BNT.

But he said it was unfortunate that the same help that was extended to him, and that he was now giving to the public, wasn’t being received or being taken advantage of.

“I built a proper gym facility that you can come and train. Not seeing people use it is a disappointment. I want Barbadians when they come to the ninja throwdown show, to not only feel good that they are at a family fun event, but to feel good that our locals possess the skill level to compete and give the international people a run for their money.

“I’ve done everything from giving free gym sessions and the excuses that you are hearing is that it’s too hard. The gym is a massive investment and it is just not being used the way I thought it would be used. But that is life right, you take the risk,” he said.

Jamaica is one of the countries Hinds is considering spreading the BNT wings. He explained that realistically the BNT event could not support the gym, it should be the other way around and unfortunately that was not the case.

“I am at a point now where I would say I’ve taken enough risk in Barbados and I am looking elsewhere. Jamaica is a huge possibility because of a connection I have there.

“When I first started ninja my uncle built me obstacles and it was at a private house. I then built this facility, it is the only one on the island or the Caribbean. It hasn’t taken off the way I wanted it to take off. And my event can’t be supporting my gym. The gym is supposed to support the event in terms of the gym training people, getting them ready to take on the obstacles that come on the day of competition and it is just quite disappointing,” Hinds said.

He added: “ We offer free education to people so they can take advantage of it and they can better themselves. I’m offering free gym training for ninja and I am getting excuses that it is too far. I’m sorry I can’t be in Wildey or Warrens, but if someone and someone’s child is interested in it, they will make it happen and get there. If you have a renowned mathematics teacher living in St. Lucy and you live in Christ Church, you would find yourself at that lesson every Saturday or whenever that lesson takes place.”

This year would have been the fifth edition for BNT which was scheduled for May 9 but has since been postponed until 2021 because of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Before COVID-19, a total of 20 international and 30 local participants signed up to compete in different age groups.

One of the ways Hinds proposed to attract more local participants was having a local competition in September next year without any registration cost.

“It has been a major setback for this year’s event. We are looking and are hoping that if large gatherings are allowed to happen, I will be doing something just locally and qualify the top finishers to then take part in the international competition.

“But that all depends on if we can have gatherings. We are just going to have a local ninja throwdown with free registration for those that want to compete. Smaller prizes, cheaper tickets at the door. So we are just waiting for the all-clear. If we get that all-clear from the government, people can still come and watch. Thankfully, I have space where people can distance themselves. I am hoping that it could still happen this year and come off successfully,” Hinds explained.

During this COVID-19 pandemic, BNT is doing its part by sharing out hampers to those in need. Hinds noted that since there was no event this year, BNT would do its part to help those in the community.

“We remain optimistic. Everyone is hurting right now and we want to do our part to ensure that we help the community in a time of need. We have been doing hampers at the ninja throwdown course for the last month. The goal is to hit 1600 hampers and so far we have done between 700 to 800 hampers.

“So we have people in the local community come out, people who did the ninja throwdown course like competitors. We did that last Saturday, the week before and we are doing it again this Saturday as well. If we are not doing ninja we are doing things to help the community,” he said.

morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb