By Morissa Lindsay
Minister of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment, Charles Griffith has dismissed the notion that the government is taking over the country’s indigenous sport of road tennis.
Speaking at a presentation ceremony held today at his Skymall office in Haggatt Hall for the top performers in the just concluded Zeemoney Independence Youth Road Tennis tournament, Griffith said in the presence of Permanent Secretary Yolande Howard that his ministry is here to push the development of all sports in Barbados.
“I want to dispel a notion here about the fact that there is this belief that the government is taking charge of road tennis. That is a misnomer, we are here to facilitate all sports, road tennis is our indigenous sport and one of the things that we felt necessary was to be involved in the process to help lift the profile of the sport. So, the belief that the government is taking over road tennis and the government is running road tennis is not the case.
“Only today in this same room I had a meeting with the new executive from gymnastics on the island and again they came because they want to grow the sport, in the same way the road tennis association is looking to grow road tennis. We are open as a ministry, as a government to work with every single national federation on the island to see how best that we can discover new talent and to build on what is existing,” Minister Griffith stated.
He praised the fintech company Zeemoney for coming on board and investing BDS$40, 000 into the just concluded Independence Youth Road Tennis tournament and urged other members of corporate Barbados to support this venture.
The overall champions for this year’s inaugural competition was Shakeem Nurse winning the 16 to 21 age group while his young brother Raheem Nurse captured the 10 to 15 Division and Kezia Blunt won the females. For their outstanding performances they received cellphones among other prizes.
Zeemoney representative Gabriella Ampaabeng (left) Minister of Sports Charles Griffith (centre) and Permanent Secretary Yolande Howard listening attentively. (Pictures by Morissa Lindsay)
Griffith said during his remarks, “This is indeed a pleasure for me to be here at the ministry dealing with this particular presentation. Earlier this year we staged the national road tennis championship that was for adults but we believed that it was necessary to get our young people involved and I want to say a big thank you to Zeemoney who is a new player in every sense on the island.
“They readily agreed to put 40 thousand dollars into this independence competition that would benefit our young people and I would only hope that other members of corporate Barbados would get on board, not only for road tennis but all of those activities that would engage our young people in sports.”
He added, “Zeemoney, it is interesting that they got on board from the jump in terms of this independence competition and I am hoping this would be an annual event as it relates to road tennis in the country.”
“The only way that we are going to grow sports in this country is if we have sports at the grassroots level, at the community level where we can discover a number of young talents and to own the skills of young person’s going forward. We have done the seniors, we have done the youths and I am hoping that the next step now is to move this programme into the school setting,” Griffith told the media.
He also noted that a number of schools have approached his ministry to provide courts which he sees as a good initiative saying, “I believe that if we can start a schools programme in earnest in 2023 which incidentally happens to be the year of the youth, that we can move road tennis now to another level. The only way we are going to grow this sport is if we have the young people involved.
“I have asked one of the youngsters who would have won his category in this competition to make sure that he is in possession of a passport because every so often we have a situation where nations and different countries are asking us to have people come to those countries to showcase the skill set.”
Zeemoney representative Gabriella Ampaabeng spoke about what it means for the company to invest in the youths of Barbados.
“This has been a great tournament and Zeemoney is excited to be part of this. At Zeemoney we strongly believe in the development of the youth in Barbados and we also share the view that road tennis should be an Olympic sport. We also believe that the future of road tennis is bright.
“Our association with the sport is also aimed at deepening relations between Barbados and Ghana and this extends to the African continent as well. We would like to say a big thank you to all the stakeholders that played a role in this tournament,” Ampaabeng said. morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb
