The Tribune

by RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

Another member of corporate Bahamas has joined the BAAAs and the Carifta Local Organizing Committee to provide financial support in hosting the 2013 BTC Carifta Track and Field Championships.

Atlantis announced yesterday that they have joined the committee at the bronze level with a $30,000 contribution.

“We are happy to be sponsors of the 2013 Carifta Games and it really ties into what we want to be a part of and that is the development of our youth. We all acknowledge that. there are quite a few problems facing our country and we know that when our youth are engaged in positive activities such as this, these folks don’t go astray,” Ed Fields, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs, “These are the kids that are disciplined, get an opportunity to go off to college, get an education and this is what we as a collective in the public and private sector can only hope to promote. We are privileged to be apart of this effort because at the end of the day it only makes our country stronger and better. We are going to show ourselves off to the rest of the region so we should show ourselves off in a really grand way.”

The LOC has set a budget of $1.2 million to cover the expenses of hosting the games.

Both LOC chairman Basil Christie and BAAA’s president Mike Sands said they are well on their way in accomplishing their goal.

“We depend heavily on corporate sponsorship, there is still need for more sponsorship, but Atlantis has again proved to be a reliable corporate citizen with their effort.

“We have promoted this an an event everyone should be proud and be privileged to be apart of,” Christie said, Just about everything is in place. Categorically we have assembled a very dynamic organising team and we have gotten support of the government and the National Sports Authority. We have no reservations in saying that this will be the best Carifta ever.”

With approxiamately 40 days before the Bahamas will host Carifta for the seventh time since 1976, they have already gotten confirmation from a number of dignitaries around the world, including the Lamine Diack, the president of the IAAF, who attended Carifta for the first time when it was hosted here in 2002.

“These games can be a costly. undertaking and it cannot be possible without the support of corporate Bahamas. We have made pleas to corporate Bahams on a number of occasions and Im pleased to say that Atlantis has answered our call and has joined us once again to support another venture,” Sands said, “It was at those games in 2002 that he [Diack] declared the Carifta Games as the best junior championships to be held in the world.”

Sands said the commitment from Atlantis will go a long way in helping the committee to defray the hosting expenses and at the same time invest in the future generation of track and field stars.

The Carifta Games has given birth to many of the top regional stars, including Jamaican Usain Bolt.

Additionally, many of the Bahamian stars like the Golden Girls and the Golden Knights, have all passed through Carifta and the Bahamas has even produced winners of the Austin Sealy Most Outstanding Athlete of the games, including Maryann Higgs, Lavern Eve, Pauline Davis-Thompson, Devbbie Ferguson-McKenzie and Anthonique Strachan.

Sealy, the founder of the games, is expected to travel from his native island of Barbados, to be a part of the list of dignitaries.