The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@triunemedia.net

MINISTER of Youth, Sports and Culture Dr Daniel Johnson has delivered a concrete timeline for the development of sporting facilities in the Family Islands.

“Within three years we will have all the stadiums in the Family Islands built,” he said. “The national championships in different sports are not always going to happen in New Providence much longer. Abaco’s facility will be built and done next summer. The year after that we can look forward to Andros. Next we have Exuma, Eleuthera, we are going to go right down the chain of islands, and we are going to have track, baseball, softball, swimming, soccer pitches, of the standard that could hold national style events.”

This year, both the BAAA National Championships and the BBF’s Andre Rodgers National Championships will be staged in Grand Bahama, but Dr Johnson said his administration will seek even further expansion.

“We may have people wondering why we would go ahead and build these stadium complexes on all these islands. We are going to have domestic tourism involved here where we are going to go island by island hosting different events and bringing the country together for that time period,” he said.

“As you return to that island and you see they were weak in one sport, you can rest assured with the facilities in place they will be stronger the next go round, and the entire country will benefit from it. For example, the Abaconians are determined to buld a 50m pool. So the people in Nassau know they will have to step their game up. For example, the young girl from Andros (Albury Higgs) won five medals at CARIFTA and they don’t have a pool. The guys from Moore’s Island track and field continue to do well and excel and they don’t have a track. So we can imagine the continued talent we can find with greater facilities. At the youngest age we need to get these kids in tune with a higher level of facilities, a higher level of coaching, a higher level of training and more parental involvement, and I think we will see ourselves back on top where we want to be.”

Keeping with the theme of guiding the Bahamas toward the “business of sports,” Dr Johnson said the development of junior programmes across the country will be enhanced with the establishment of a National Sports Academy.

“We are focused now almost exclusively on developmental programmes. Programmes we call ‘From the Playground To the Podium’. It is a wonderful programme we will unveil later this summer, designed at making sports fun again and encouraging everyone to come out and do something. As young as two, we want them back outside. So we are trying to bring some semblance of community spirit back into our lifestyles,” he said.

Prime Minister Perry Christie reiterated the government’s sport development in the House of Assembly communication last week.

Mr Christie said in order for the Bahamas to truly become competitive in sports, the government must invest the resources to provide athletes with the best opportunities.

“I would like to say this about moving forward, just yesterday I spoke to my colleagues about the fact that we ought not to compromise on extending the frontiers of sports through establishment of facilities throughout the Bahamas. The great tragedy of sports in an island nation is that the people who are selected generally to represent their country come from the islands where there are facilities and when you look at the islands you really speak of Grand Bahama and New Providence,” he said.