The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

JAMAICA’S youth development track and field programme has become the gold standard in the Caribbean and the Bahamas will look to follow suit.

Prior to hosting the 2013 Scotiabank National High School Track and Field Championships, BAAA executives discussed the future of the meet and their effort to bring it on par with Jamaica’s “Champs.”

BAAA president Mike Sands said the ultimate goal is to mimic the success and enthusiasm surrounding Jamaica’s national championships.

“On an annual basis they are able to host tens of thousands of fans in their stadium and ‘Champs’ has become the most eagerly anticipated event on their athletics calendar,” he said. “I have a friend of mine who’s a native of Jamaica and he has said to me that he has only missed two ‘Champs’ in over 30 years, so we have to find a way to connect and to have Bahamian people have that sense of pride and that type of interest in our younger athletes at the local level even before they reach regional and then international competition as elite athletes.”

The Inter-Secondary Schools Boys and Girls Championships, better known as the “Champs,” is an annual Jamaican multi-sport high school athletics meet held by Jamaica’s Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association.

The four-day event, held in Kingston during the last week before Easter, has been considered a proving ground for many successful Jamaican athletes.

Although it began in 1910, “Champs” was virtually unknown to mainstream international media until the emergence of a disproportionate number of world-class sprinters from Jamaica in the Olympic Games and IAAF World Championships in Athletics.

This year’s edition saw more than 30 records broken - the most ever - with more than 15 on the final day alone.

“We were in discussions during the CARIFTA Games, BAAA executives and Minister Danny Johnson, and next year we want to travel and send a contingent to ‘Champs’ just to get first-hand knowledge and experience what it is to make it such a successful event that captivates the country,” Sands said. “This is what we want our Nationals to be, to fill the Thomas A Robinson stadium and produce the best performances from our student athletes.”

American college coaches in particular were very aware of the richness of the competitor pool, since they travelled to Kingston each year to scout for junior college and NCAA-level talent.

Evan Wisdom, director of the Sports Unit in the Ministry of Education, said the success of the event hinges on the participation of the community to go with the superior product the Bahamas has produced for years in track and field.

“It will take a concentrated effort from the Ministry of Education and the BAAA to ensure we schedule things succinctly in terms of our athletic season and exam season with special attention on the CARIFTA Games as well,” he said. “We have always had superior talent in this small country, that is a given, what it will take is a great sense of national pride from our community. Every Bahamian is an alma mater of some school and what we need is to re-establish that connection.”

Over 1,000 student athletes from approximately 28 schools throughout the country took part in the Scotiabank National High School Track and Field Championships to decide the title of national champions to conclude their scholastic athletics season.