The Tribune

NORMALLY there is a parade to celebrate the accomplishments of our athletes at the Olympic Games and the International Amateur Athletic Federation’s World Championship teams following their medal-winning performances.

However, there won’t be any motorcade or island-hopping for the team that competed at the World Championships in London, England, where Steven Gardiner and Shaunae Miller-Uibo came up with a silver and bronze medal respectively.

Instead, Timothy Munnings, director of sports in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, confirmed that the government will recognise the athletes and all those athletes and teams who performed exceptionally well in all of their sporting events this year at a gala awards banquet.

The year-ending banquet will take place on Saturday, November 25, in the Crown Ballroom at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island.

While they won’t be taken through the streets in a national motorcade, Munnings said the government’s incentive policy remains in place with Gardiner earning a pay cheque of $30,000 for winning the silver medal in the men’s 400m and Miller-Uibo will get $15,000 for her bronze in the women’s 200m.

She will collect another $5,000 for making it to the final in the women’s 400m where she finished fourth.

“We will celebrate them on November 25th,” Munnings said. “We will recognize all of the teams and the athletes, as we can, who performed so well this year.

“I don’t see an individual celebration happening right now for the athletes. Nothing has been planned. At this point, we are aiming at a major celebrations for everybody on November 25.”

During the course of the year, Munnings said there were a lot of athletes and teams tat excelled, but they didn’t get the recognition that they deserve for their accomplishments.

“We think the sports awards is a great opportunity to recognize the athletes and the teams that went out there performing,” he said.

“We just had Joanna Evans win two medals at the World University Games. There’s no celebrations planned for her, but she’s certainly one that should receive some recognition come the end of the year.”

Across the board, Munnings said there have been so many outstanding performances in water polo, judo, basketball,

“If we do that for everybody, we will be partying all year,” he quipped. “We wanted to receive the World Championship team this year, but they were so fragmented in their return that it was very difficult to plan that.”

Munnings, however, said the government intent to join in any celebrations that will take place in Murphy Town, Abaco or Moores Island for Gardiner where he was born and trained respectively.

As for Miller-Uibo,Munnings said she’s still competing as she have another Diamond League final on Friday when she run in the women’s 200m in Brussels, Belgium, which makes it even more difficult to plan anything.

“By the time she settles in, we will be so close to the year ending sports awards, so we decided that we will just make it one big celebrations for all of our athletes and teams who performed so well this year,” Munnings said.

He noted that a planning committee is in the process of working out the details for the year ending awards celebrations and once they have been set, they will be released to the public.