The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WHILE they wait to hear the sound of “Let the games begin” today, island council chairmen are eager to showcase their talent during the Golden Jubilee Bahamas Games.

After a 21-year hiatus, the mini-Olympic-style competition will get underway today and continue through Saturday, July 15 at various sites in New Providence.

The games will feature competition for athletes in volleyball, soccer, baseball, basketball, swimming, cycling, softball, tennis, golf, boxing, sailing, track and field and edukarting.

Grand Bahama, the only team to beat New Providence in the games that have had five editions before it was put on the shelf after the last competition in 2002, will be coming with a solid team to win it all.

Veteran chairman Churchill Tener Knowles said with more than 300 athletes coming in to participate in all of the events, they are certain they will give the rest of their counterparts a run for their money.

“We have a group of athletes who are committed to competing at a very high level,” Knowles said.

“We basically have a lot of young people. We have a few mature people in softball and basketball, but we have some very talented athletes representing Grand Bahama.”

Knowles said Grand Bahama will be very strong in events like swimming, basketball and softball. For all of the other sports, he said, they will field teams that will be just as competitive.

If there is any issue going into the games, Knowles said it’s the report that they received that baseball has decided to include international certified umpires to officiate the games, while including some of the local umpires.

Knowles said as these are the “Bahamas Games,” they should be officiated by Bahamian umpires and they hope that the Games Secretariat, the Bahamas Baseball Association and chief umpire Martin ‘Pork’ Burrows will not allow the foreign umpires to officiate over the local umpires.

Exuma’s chairman Bernard Swain said they anticipate fielding more than 300 athletes as well as they compete

“I am confident that we will do well. We can’t pinpoint any event that we will win outright, but I know we will do very well,” he said. “We came here strong and we ain’t come to take any prisoners.”

Exuma will be fully represented in all of the disciplines except for baseball and that is because of the changes of the ages of the competitors.

“We had to withdraw our team because we were only going to bring the kids to compete in baseball,” Swain said. “We couldn’t put our kids to play against the older guys.

“I accept their rational for changing the rules, but I understand what they are doing.”

Look for Exuma to be very strong in swimming, sailing, men’s softball and women’s basketball. If there’s a weakness for Exuma, it would be in tennis where he claims they are not strong at all.

Abaco, according to chairman Kirk Reckley, is looking really good.

“We were able to accomplish the things we set out to do and now we are about to put it in our performances,” he said. “We are coming here to win it all.”

With athletes competing in all disciplines, Reckley said it’s going to be hard for Abaco to get beat.

“We were able to put together a very solid team,” said , as he compliments his assistants, who worked tirelessly with him. “We are strong across the board. We don’t have any weaknesses.”

The games will get started today at 9 am with competition in volleyball at the Kendal Isaacs and Anatol Rodgers Gymnasiums, baseball at the new Andre Rodgers Baseball Stadium and soccer at the Roscoe Davies Developmental Center at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex.

The official opening ceremonies for the games will take place on Saturday at 6 pm at the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium. Prime Minister Philip ‘Brave’ Davis is expected to lead the list of dignitaries