The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas will have a nine-member team among the 800 under-23 athletes from 29 countries competing at the historic inaugural Caribbean Games in Guadeloupe from June 29 to July 3.

Romell Knowles, president of the BOC, revealed that it will cost about $100,000 for Team Bahamas to compete in the games, which will comprise of seven sports and is organised by the Panam Sports Association.

Chef de mission Dorian Roach made the announcement of the team that includes the following athletes and coaches: Athletics (track and field) - Adrian Curry (men’s 100m); Camille Rutherford (women’s 100m); Megan Moss (women’s 400m); Corey Sherrod II (men’s 400m); Oscar Smith (men’s 100m hurdles) and Rhema Otabar (women’s javelin).

The coach will be Kennord Mackey.

Judo - Danial Strachan (men’s 90 kilogram) and Jasmine Russell (women’s 57 kilogram).

Oneysi Portorreal Pons is the coach.

Cycling - Felix Neely Jr (road race).

Roach, who will travel on the management team with Rickey Davis as the doctor and Jenna Gibson as the physio-therapist, said it has been a long time coming for the staging of the games.

“I know for a number of years, we have been trying to put on the Caribbean Games, a games that the English-speaking Caribbean countries can have as their own,” said Roach, a vice president of the BOC. “So we’re excited to see that dream to a fruition in 2022.”

Roach, who is also the president of the Bahamas Triathlon Association, said they are hoping that the games will be established as one that the athletes can look forward to in the future.

The initial games will also include basketball 3-on-3, futsal, swimming and netball, but Roach said they were unable to field any swimmers as the Bahamas Aquatics will be engaged in another event and they won’t have any swimmers available.

“This is the first major kind of games after COVID. It’s a youth under-23 age group, so these are our athletes who are preparing for the bigger games in the future,” he said.

“Guadeloupe is still going through some COVID-19 protocols, but we don’t expect to have any issues.

“It’s unfortunate that we don’t have any swimmers and the track and field team is so small, but we have nine athletes who we feel will represent the country very well.”

As these games are put on for the Caribbean athletes, Knowles said the Bahamas will support Guadeloupe in making sure that the games are a success and hopefully they can build on what takes place in the future.