The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

rwells@tribunemedia.net

WITH the third instalment of the IAAF World Relays set for late April, I read with great interest the clear “line in the sand” message by Youth, Sports and Culture Minister Dr Danny Johnson in which he declared that local athletes still pondering whether to attend a proposed training camp ahead of the April meet, shouldn’t show up at all.

His words. Not mine.

“If you have some athletes second guessing and wondering if they need to come, then don’t come,” said Johnson during a recent press conference. “Just give me back my uniform. Everyone must show up to play because we don’t have time for anything else. If you don’t want to represent the Bahamas, just give the uniform back.”

According to reports, Dr Johnson was answering a question on what steps will be made to ensure that the Bahamas fields the best team possible for the World Relays, as the top eight teams in both the men and women 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 metres will automatically qualify for the IAAF World Championships in London, England in August.

That means, in short, a strong performance at the World Relays should propel team Bahamas to good spot not only at this summer’s World Championships, but at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Dr Johnson at the time said he had given his word to the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations that he would do all he could to ensure that athletes are here for the training camp, even if it meant them having to come and go during the sessions.

While I applaud the want and need for local athletes to train and prepare for events here at home, the firm stance taking by Dr Johnson, in my opinion, does more harm than good.

The nature of his comments doesn’t entice athletes, many of whom are in situations that lend to better preparation and preparedness, it puts an unnecessary spotlight on them.

This declaration when read gives the impression that local athletes are too self-absorbed with their own efforts to return home and train.

It gives the idea that our athletes are of the view that they are too good to be here.

Let me be clear, I am not trying to put words in the mouth of the good minister. No, not at all.

I am arguing that from the perspective of someone simply reading his quotes, one can easily identify a tone that suggests that the athletes are at fault and have gone on far too long with a bad practice that has limited team Bahamas.

His point would’ve been better served by laying a base that clarifies the importance for athletes coming home to take part in these sort of training exercises.

If you recall, at the 2015 World Relays here in the Bahamas, many countries opted to field world-class teams in an effort to boost their world rankings and qualifying times for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Team Bahamas struggled to field a quality team.

Beyond the men’s 4x400m team, only the female 4x400m team managed to get to Rio, the latter of which needed the suspension of Russia’s team to get in.

Many pundits are of the view that if those teams made the effort to get together and work with each other, the Bahamas could have fielded four quality teams ahead of that meet, all of which would have gone on to advance to the Rio Olympics.

I understand he was responding with the view that those that heard or read his statements would have done so with an understanding of how important the IAAF event is for team Bahamas and its Olympic plans, but that isn’t often the case.

We now live in a world where everything uttered publicly, whether unjust or not, has to be done in a “politically correct” manner.

This wasn’t one of those instances.