The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

LORD Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics, admitted that there’s no better place to stage the World Relays than in The Bahamas where it got its genesis in 2014.

The Bahamas hosted the next two editions in 2015 and again in 2017 before relinquishing it in 2019 to Yokohama, Japan, only to watch it move to Chorzow, Poland in 2021.

World Athletics awarded the Bahamas the rights to host the next edition last year.

Speaking to journalists while here for another appearance at the CARIFTA Games over the weekend at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium, Coe said World Athletics is excited that the World Relays are coming back home.

The Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations won the bid to host the World Relays for the third time in either April or May, 2024.

“When I joined the Council in 2003, we had a discussion on the implementation of a World Relays. It took us too long to get there. No sport can sit on something like that for 11 years from the initial discussion to the delivery of the championships,” he stated.

“The first edition in 2014 was outstanding. We had another one a year or so later, but sadly we couldn’t continue that continuity (in the Bahamas), but we’re back and we’re really delighted.”

Coe commended former councilwoman Pauline Davis for her tenacity to get the first edition here and now the Bahamas Government saw fit to bring it back.

“For me, it makes sense to have that continuity,” Coe stated. “We have a great stadium, we have great fans, but it’s an ambitious world. It’s a world where more and more of our federations want to stage events.

“The World Relays are really religion in this part of the world. I understand that. I stood at the third change over at the beginning of the straight last night and the atmosphere was outstanding. The relays contribute to that. So having the World Relays in this part of the world will help to cement it.”

After he experienced his first taste of the Bahamas in 2014, Coe said he’s been back regularly for meetings with the North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) and previous CARIFTA Games.

“This is an island that understands track and field. Pauline Davis was my collegiate on the World Athletics Council for many years, so if I wasn’t fully aware of how important track and field is in the Bahamas, then she reminded us on the hour, every hour in the press conferences and in the council meetings.

“So this is the first event every year that goes into my calendar and I’ve not missed one since 2015, only the two that we lost through Covid.”

Back for his second games here after attending the first one in 2018, Coe said he was constantly asked if the sport would miss Usain Bolt when he retired.

He declared, yes, but the future of the sport is at CARIFTA. That is why he makes it a point to keep it as a staple to attend every year.

“I competed in my career with many athletes in the team that came through the CARIFTA Games,” he stated. “I know that experience is huge and they take it through their careers. It’s a very important building block, so it’s a very important part of our development in the sport.”

As proof in the pudding, Coe revealed that within one year of becoming president of World Athletics, they made an additional grant to NACAC to help deliver the games.

“At World Athletics, we treat these games very seriously because they are a part of the development programme,” Coe said.

“I want to see them grow. I want to see them because even more central in the development of the young athletes. And I would like other area associations to look at them as a model moving forward.”

Coe, a four-time Olympic middle-distance runner from Great Britain, said although running is the staple diet in the Caribbean, he has seen a lot more athletes starting to excel in the field events at CARIFTA, which only bodes well for the future of the games.

“I’m delighted that over the years that I’ve been coming to the CARIFTA Games, I’ve witnessed many athletes taking part in field events and I’ve witnessed a lot more athletes not just excelling in the sprints, but I’ve watched some really good middle-distance running and some marginally long-distance events as well.”

Coe commended Anderson Peters, who was here for the games and supporting Grenada in their bid to host the next CARIFTA in 2024, which they were successful in achieving.

Since the return of the sport in the post COVID-19 environment, Coe said he’s been to every continent to watch the sport as it made its comeback in a grand way.

“I think the athletes have shown massive resilience during that really difficult time,” Coe pointed out.

“We pay tribute to them because without the athletes, we don’t have an event. It would have been so easy for many of the athletes to hide away during that period and maybe not even come back into the sport.

“Many sports suffered, many sports stopped competition...Athletics didn’t. And that’s in large part due to the creativity of our member federations, but above all, and beyond all, the athletes showed massive resilience, and fortitude and focus during an incredibly difficult period.”

Using the Toyko Olympic Games, albeit in the bubble and the World Athletics in Eugene, Oregon last year and the on-going Diamond League as an example, Coe said the athletes returned stronger than they did prior to Covid-19.

He noted that with the return of the World Relays to the Bahamas, they hope to further develop their presence here in this part of the world.