The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WHILE adult runners will get a chance to compete in the Bay Street Mile earlier in the morning, the newly formed Kids Athletic Academy has designed their own version of a road race for children on Saturday, November 9.

To ensure that they get to compete in a safe and secure environment, the academy will be taking the event to the Bahamas Hot Rod Association’s newly constructed Motorsports Park at the Queen Elizabeth Sports Center.

Right after the Bahamas Track and Field Coaches Association completes the Bay Street Mile from the Straw Market to BASRA’s headquarters, the scene will shift to the QESC where the first Kids Race is set to begin at 10am.

Competitors will get the opportunity to compete in the under-7 boy and first 0.8 kilometre or .5 mile race, under-9 in the 1.1k or 1 mile race and both the under-11 and under-13 in a 2k or 1.2 mile races.

Club head coach Sherry Murray-Francis said the event was designed to help fill the void that was created with the absence of a number of cross country events that have been cancelled this year.

“We always have a problem with the distance programme,” said Murray-Francis, a former distance runner herself. “Stephen (Murray) and I decided that we will try a developmental programme for kids from primary schools. So the road race is normally for the older children and so we came up with the idea to do one for the younger children.”

After contacting the BHRA, Murray-Francis said it was easy to sell them on the idea to host the event at their venue, which is something different than the cross country.

“We have the cross country on the fort, a lot of my kids have a problem running the hills and when I realised that no one was putting on any cross country, I decided that we can do a road race instead,” she noted. “Then one day driving pass, I saw the enclosed environment at Hod Rod and that is how the idea came up to have the event there.”

Clubs and schools will have until Tuesday, November 5 to register their athletes to compete. The registration fee is $5 per athlete and the first three finishers in each category will be awarded a medal, while ribbons will go out to the top 10 finishers in each event.

Registration forms can be collected and returned to Murray-Francis at Temple Christian Elementary School on Collins Avenue or email bahamasea@hotmail.com or f.francis@coralwave.com or from the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations’ office at the original Thomas A Robinson Track and Field Stadium.

The event is sanctioned by both the BAAA and the Bahamas Track and Field Coaches Association. The Bahamas Association of Certified Officials will serve as the officials for the event.

“I’ve contacted all of the clubs because they are looking for an event for their athletes to compete in after the cross country races have been called off,” Murray-Francis said. “So they were excited about that, but we are having some challenges from the schools. But I still feel we will have some good responses.”

As for the lack of events for distance runners to compete in, Murray-Francis said she’s quite disappointed because “we have some clubs that don’t believe in distance running. They only feel that their kids should be competing in the sprints. The problem is not everybody is a sprinter and because some of them are not having any success, at least we know they can get into the distance events.”

If the BAAA is serious about developing the distance running programme, Murray-Francis said they can start by identifying competitors in events like their road race and getting them into a national programme that can help them in the long run, rather than waiting until they get too old to try and convert them to the longer races.

“This could also be used by the coaches for a testing and evaluating period,” Murray-Francis said. “This is off season, so we need to test our athletes’ physical fitness level right now by having them run in the long road races to see where they are at this point before the track season starts in January.”