The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WHEN the Flow CARIFTA Games get underway on Friday with the official opening ceremonies, the Bahamas Association of Certified Officials will be smartly dressed in their new uniform - collar shirts.

Janaees Uniform Centre owner James Wallace presented BACO's president Ray Hepburn and member Barry Saunders with the new white polo shirts that is embroidered with the logos of Janaees and BACO.

Wallace said since their mantras has been assisting schools and other organisations with uniforms, when they were contacted by Hepburn, they gladly agreed to provide the tops for BACO.

"We are indeed very pleased at Janaees to assist you and partner with you in providing uniforms for your officials for this upcoming CARIFTA Games," Wallace said.

"We've got to show the world that the Bahamas is the best at everything that we do and we are proud at Janaees to offer uniforms for over 100 of your officials and we think that they will make you proud and indeed the Bahamas."

Hepburn said they are appreciative of the support they got from Janaees.

"When we spoke to Mr Wallace, he was very accommodating because he wanted to do everything," Hepburn said. "We wanted to outsource some of the items, but they said no they wanted to give us the complete product.

"As you can see, we have a beautiful shirt that was donated to over 100 officials, inclusive of officials from the Caribbean as well. We have international officials that we will give these shirts to to represent us as we perform for this upcoming CARIFTA Games."

After the Local Organising Committee (LOC) indicated to BACO that they had a limited amount of equipment and uniforms that they got from Puma, they had to look outside of the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations for their uniforms.

"We thank Janaees for their wonderful partnership. It's a beautiful shirt. It has their name on it. So we are so happy to be receptive of this wonderful gift and this donation. We appreciate it so much."

Brett 'B-Man' Archer, the CEO of Brearcom, an advertising firm that works with Janaees, congratulated Janaees, who has consistently assisted students, schools and other organisations with uniforms.

"Brearcom is proud to be a part of this with BACO to ensuring that another group of Bahamians and officials from other countries are going to be well represented at the upcoming CARIFTA Games."

In their customary style from the time they were formed by the late Deacon Leviticus 'Uncle Lou' Adderley, Hepburn said they have agreed to stick with the white t-shirts, but they have tweaked their logo and they will also continue to wear the red pants.

Hepburn, however, advised the public that they have and will always be separate and apart from the St Augustine's College Big Red Machine, whose traditional sporting colours are red and white.

BACO is responsible for the officiating of all track and field competition in the country that falls under the jurisdiction of the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF).

There are more than 30 to 45 certified officials in the island nation. Stephanie Rahming, the international area technical officer, is responsible for the training and certification progress.

"Officiating in track and field is not something that we take lightly," Hepburn pointed out.

"We are educated, we are trained on a regular basis and what it does is it brings the level of competition and officiating to the place where even the IAAF, because of what we had, brought the IAAF World Relays here under the former government.

"So our responsibility is to officiate track and field under the rules of the IAAF and so what you will find at CARIFTA is the same level of professionalism that you will find in any IAAF competition."

Hepburn said the new uniforms will be an added plus for all of the officials who will be officiating at the games.

While they are not officially affiliated with the CARIFTA Games, Wallace said Janaees has helped the sport of sailing, of which he is a member, in providing uniforms for a lot of the sailors in their competition.

He said their company is open to work with any sporting body who is looking for an alternative to providing their uniforms for their teams and their competitors.