New Minister of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment Charles Griffith is giving the assurance that one of his first orders of business is to get local sporting activity back up and running.
Speaking after a groundbreaking ceremony for a 200-meter track facility at the Springer Memorial School today, Griffith told members of the media that his Ministry was working very hard to get track and field and other sporting events moving in full swing again after a two-year break.
“We are following the protocols like I said, we want to ensure that best practices ensue when we open sports again. But I have been receiving a lot of requests from the national federations to restart sports and I suspect that in a very short time, maybe before the end of this month, we will have sports again. But that is based on us following the science to ensure again like I said that safety is the primary thing in relation to sports,” he said.
The five-lane track will be constructed at just over BDS$200,000 and principal of the Springer Memorial School Mitchelle Maxwell noted the rich sporting legacy of the school which reigned for 16 consecutive years as champions of the Barbados Secondary Schools Athletics Championship. She also reminded those present that the school had so far produced two Olympians in Akela Jones and more recently Tristan Evelyn.
“And we will continue to fuel an agenda in making strong representation for facilities to support our sporting programmes and healthy lifestyles initiatives,” Maxwell said.
Meanwhile, Julie Phillips, physical education coordinator at the school, explained that the High Performance Centre as well as the Springer on Track initiative were all part of a seven-year vision of the department that has now come to fruition.
Minister of Education Kay McConney delivered the feature address. (ML)
