Barbados steps up global road tennis push

Barbados will take another step in its campaign to secure international recognition for road tennis when a seven-member delegation leaves the island on Wednesday to promote the sport at the Commonwealth Games in Scotland.

The delegation, led by Road Tennis Czar Dale Clarke, will use the trip to showcase Barbados’ indigenous sport to senior officials from the Commonwealth Sport Secretariat and other key stakeholders attending the Games.

“It gives them the opportunity to see professional road tennis firsthand, being showcased by some of our top players, and it also gives us the opportunity to get the conversations going, while introducing road tennis to the countries of the Commonwealth,” Clarke explained.

He revealed that, “We’re getting a lot of interest from all parts of the world. In Africa there’s interest, also in Europe and in South America. There’s an ongoing program in North America and then shortly we will be rolling out our Caribbean program, because it cannot be that a sport exists in Barbados and we’re not looking at our neighbors to grow it regionally.” 

The delegation also includes three time Barbados Road Tennis Open Men’s Champion, Mark Venom Griffith, teenager Jael Greaves,sisters Jessica and Jalesa Holder-Vaughan, Chairman of the Barbados Road Tennis Open Committee, Shawn Burke and Taahir Bulbulia, who is adviser to Sports Minister, Charles Griffith.

The delegation will be returning to Barbados on Monday, August 3.

(KH)