The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Perry Christie yesterday put aside “political differences” as he congratulated veteran sailor Sir Durward Knowles on the 50th anniversary of his winning the Bahamas first Olympic gold medal.

Celebrating the achievement of Sir Durward and Cecil Cooke, the crewman, of winning the Star class at the 1964 Games in Tokyo, Japan, Mr Christie said “as a political leader” it was an honour to salute people like Sir Durward who “did so much to keep (him) out of power.”

“He never hides what he is, who he is, what he represents, what he believes in, and he does it in such a disarming way,” Mr Christie said at the Atlantis Paradise Island resort.

“We have the frankest and most wonderful discussions about our political differences. It has made our relationship even stronger, because we don’t have to equivocate to each other. We’re able to speak as Bahamians recognising the differences that we have.

“There are very few Bahamians if any, who have established a track record of philanthropy, being able to give to causes and to families of his own resources, and to do so in a way that would become very special,” he added. “If one had to find a unifying figure in the country, who has lived to do so much to unify the entire country by the very spirit he endears to people, it would have to be Sir Durward Knowles.”

A year after attending his first international regatta in Cuba in 1947, Sir Durward emerged victorious in the World Championships in Los Angeles. In the same year, he won the Miami Orange Bowl Regatta and the sailing of the Johnny Walker series in Miami, followed by the Star Class Spring Championships in the Bahamas.

In the 1948 Olympics - the first of his eight Games - he finished fourth in the Star class with Sloane Farrington and four years later in Helsinki, Finland, he was fifth. In 1956, however, Sir Durward and Mr Farrington sailed to a bronze medal in Melbourne, Australia, and although the country was still under British rule at the time, it was the first Olympic medal for the Bahamas.

It was not gold, but Sir Durward was to make a greater mark.

After a disappointing sixth place in the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Sir Durward - now with Mr Cooke - made history by capturing the gold medal in the Star class, bringing home the Bahamas’ first Olympic gold medal and catapulting the Bahamas onto the world stage.

Sir Durward finished fifth in the Mexico Olympics in 1968, 13th in Munich in 1972 and 19th in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, in which he competed at the remarkable age of 70.

Nonetheless, Mr Christie said Sir Durward’s and Mr Cooke’s accomplishments in Japan propelled the Bahamas onto “the world stage” in athletics, and called it the launching pad for more recent Olympic achievements by Bahamian athletes, such as the “Golden Girls” winning the 4 x 400 metres relays at the 2000 Olympics and the “Golden Knights” men’s 4 x 400 metres relay team winning the 2012 Olympic title in London.

“They (Sir Durward and others) have reached a level in our country where the entire country is gripped in recognising this extraordinary achievement that placed the Bahamas – per capita – in terms of our population and racial outline, in the number one spot in terms of athletic achievements,” he said.

Governor General Dame Marguerite Pindling echoed Mr Christie’s statements, and said “it was a pleasure” to honour Sir Durward and the late Mr Cooke for their “stellar accomplishments” and “historic achievements.”

“The wonderful attainment of an Olympic gold medal, which was a first for Bahamians 50 years ago, has surely inspired the dreams of many more young Bahamian athletes to aim high and achieve honour for themselves and for our nation,” she said. “It was an event which will rightly remain forever in the annals of our history, and which will continue as an inspiration to Bahamians everywhere.”

Mr Cooke died with his wife in a car accident in Fox Hill on May 1, 1983, at the age of 59. Dame Marguerite said it was “essential” to honour “the other Olympic champion who shared the joy of victory” with Sir Durward.

She said his untimely passing “marked a particular loss to the Bahamas as a whole and to Olympic sailing in particular”.