The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THROUGH an initiative by Scotiabank, 15 schools from the Ministry of Education will be participating in Marathon Bahamas on Sunday.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Evon Wisdom, who is in charge of the sports division at the Ministry of Education, said they are pleased to join forces with Scotiabank in providing another avenue to develop distance running through the schools’ participation in Marathon Bahamas.

“I want the Bahamian public to know that this is something that is not even happening in Jamaica,” said Wisdom, making a comparison with their neighbouring sporting prowess nation. “So, we are very, very proud that Sunshine Insurance and Marathon Bahamas, along with Scotiabank, is assisting us.

“From the ministry’s end, we take this very serious because one of the deficits that we’ve had when it comes to Carifta is that our distance runners have not been able to win a medal in recent times. So we want to ensure that we can improve in those areas and not just sprinting.”

Wisdom has given a lot of the credit to former distance runner Trevor Strachan who, through his Windshield House Company, has been responsible for getting the schools involved after they worked with them through the sponsorship of the CH Reeves Cross Country Championships last year.

Through track and field, Strachan said he was able to obtain an athletic scholarship and gone on to university to secure two Bachelor of Arts and a Masters degree.

Now he said he feels obligated to give back to the community to assist others in following suit through the school system.

Marathon Bahamas public relations officer Veronica Duncanson said they are delighted to welcome the school aspect to this year’s competition.

“This is an ideal that came to us through our race director, Pam Richardson, about two years ago,” Duncanson said. “So then, we have been working feverishly to try and adopt this programme so that the young people, who are the future generation of distance runners, marathon runners, are introduced to marathon running so in the not too distant future, within 10 years, have us participate at the Olympic level in the marathon.”

Duncombe said they have been so pleased with the response from the participating schools that they have had to close the registration on the relay aspect of the marathon, which is a significant aspect and they applauded Scotiabank for coming on board through their “Bright Future Programme.”

Leah Davis, marketing and public relations officer, who along with Indira Rolle, manager of public and corporate affairs/sponsorships/philanthropy, represented Scotiabank, said they are even more delighted to sponsor the marathon because of the part proceeds that will go to help in the fight against breast cancer.

But more importantly, she said the marathon is an ideal fit for their sponsorship for their ‘Bright Future Programme,’ which is to support the next generation.

“We realise that this has a lot of potential beyond the 15 teams represented here,” Davis said. “I’m sure we could have the opportunity to have an entire marathon that is designed to just students. We are looking forward to working together in that aspect.”

Karen Pinder of the Rotary Club of Nassau Sunrise said they were so pleased with their partnership with Marathon Bahamas last year that when Duncombe approached them with joining forces with Scotiabank, they didn’t hestitate to come back again this year.

“In Rotary, we are passionate about the youth, the future of our country, the future of the world, developing leaders who can take on the challenges of the world,” Pinder said. “So we thought this was a nature fit. But another aspect of Rotary is that we find value in work, in ethical work. So we immediately thought about the various vocations that our Rotarians possess and we’ve asked at least one person from each one to work with a mentoring programme.”

Through the mentoring programme, Pinder said Rotarians will write essays on marathon running that they hope the physical education teachers will share with their student athletes.

At the conclusion of the programme, Pinder said they will bring the mentors and student-athletes together to share their concerns and questions they may have on the way forward.

For the students present from CH Reeves, AF Adderley and St Anne’s School, they were all enthused about represemting their schools in the marathon, some competing for the first time and others have been involved, running on relay teams since its inception three years ago.

Patrick Sweeting, Kelvin Major, D’Mitry Forbes, Godfrey Arthur, Shawn Brown-Kemp and Dominic Lightbourn were among the students present, who will be representing their respective schools on Sunday.