Two-day mega event heading to Idyllic St Joseph

By Morissa Lindsay

A new route through the scenic East Coast of Barbados and the inclusion of other exciting racing events were announced during today’s launch of the 2022 Run Barbados series, scheduled to take place on December 10th and 11th in Bathsheba, St Joseph.

During this afternoon’s press conference held at the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc (BTMI) office in Warrens, director for the Caribbean and Latin America Sports at BTMI, Corey Garrett, along with event producer and race director, Zary Evelyn, said they
expect this 39th edition of Run Barbados to be even more spectacular than 2019 when it last took place.

The prize money for this year’s marathon and half marathon series will be BDS$4, 000 and BDS$2, 000 respectively, along with a return ticket and hotel accommodation fully paid for the winners to return in 2023 for the 40th edition. According to Garrett and Evelyn, those who compete whether locally or internationally will receive the most attractive medals.

Besides the marathon races, there will also be a five kilometer (run and walk) and ten kilometer on Saturday while the marathons as well as a three and seven kilometer showdown will be contested on Sunday from 5:30 a.m. Traditionally in the past Run Barbados started and ended at Carlisle Bay but this year it is expected to start and end near the Uncle Joe shop located close to Bathsheba Park.

“One thing we want to let Barbados and the entire world know, the event is not just for the athletes or the runners but also for the family, companies, anybody who thinks they want to participate the event is definitely open to you. This year of course will be the 39th
edition of the event and we will see an increase in the so-called fun factor as we plan to add lots more music and entertainment elements to the activities along the various points of the route.

“We are happy to announce this afternoon that the Run Barbados will be running on a new route and we are taking it to the scenic and the iconic East Coast of Barbados, the Ermie Bourne Highway and its vicinities. So, the Run Barbados will take on a new and unique aspect of it running along our very scenic East Coast Road,” Garrett said.

He added: “Hosting these types of events fit very much under the BTMI’s mandate for sporting tourism and continuing to ensure that we help to diversify the Barbados Tourism Product. We are continuing to work to develop this island not only as an island for leisure tourists, for romance tourists or maybe for business tourists but an island that is maybe known for sporting tourism.”

With sponsorship consultant Richard Haynes on board, the organizers are seeking to garner financial support through corporate Barbados. Sponsors so far for this year’s Run Barbados are Eco Sky water, Royal Bank of Canada, Chefette Frosteez, Nature Discounts and Gildan who have agreed to provide shirts for competitors.

Run Barbados has also teamed up with MarathonFoto which is an international photography company that specializes in sporting events and they have agreed to train some local photographers. In terms of how interested persons can register that will be known at a later date. Sportstats, a timing company, is also on board and a team from ESPN is expected to be on island to cover the event.

Evelyn said Run Barbados commenced in 1983 and has grown tremendously and therefore he expects that the 2765 registered participants from 2019 will be surpassed in 2022.

“When we last had it in 2019 it was the largest it has ever been with all of the different events showing record numbers. So, unfortunately we had to miss 2020 and 2021 and 2022 is looking as if it could be just as big as 2019 or even bigger,” Evelyn explained.

“When you measure a sporting event in Barbados by participation, Run Barbados by far is the largest. It doesn’t get the sort of coverage that cricket would get but that is more spectators. But when you measure it just by participation the run is huge. It brings in a lot of tourists and it is a very valuable asset for BTMI. So, the plan is to keep growing it and one of the innovations this year to try and grow it was the moving of the routes from Carlisle Bay to the new and exciting East Coast.

“It was a bit of a gamble to put it out there and what made it possible was the Joe’s River Bridge; otherwise, when you come to the end of Bathsheba you would have to go over the hills down into Cattlewash. The Bridge has made it all possible and when we did launch and announce the East Coast the public internationally went ballistic for it so that is fantastic.

“So, we have gotten support and we have gotten a lot more attention than we have gotten in the past from people all over the world. So, we are happy to say it looks like a winning combination of people coming here for the holiday and indulging their passion for running in a new and innovative atmosphere,” Evelyn told the media.

Instead of the usual three days of Friday to Sunday, it has been cut to two days and the Fun Mile has been scrapped from this year’s calendar which Evelyn explained was done because it was difficult to organize in the new location.

morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb