The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

AS the curtain came down on the sixth Bahamas Games, Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Mario Bowleg said he was pleased with what he saw from the nine days of competition.

“This was a great Bahamas Games,” said Bowleg, who was in attendance for the final event on Saturday night in the men’s softball gold medal game in the Bankers’ Field at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex.

“The games started off pretty slow, but as the momentum started to build, we started to see the development of sports in the length and breadth of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.”

Although it was a showdown between the Grand Bahama Lucayans and the New Providence Buccaneers for the most medals accumulated, Bowleg said he was pleased to see the parity from the other islands participating.

Unofficially, Grand Bahama collected 91 gold, 59 silver and 41 bronze for a total of 191 medals. New Providence had 77 gold, 74 silver and 60 bronze for 211 medals.

The Abaco Chickcharnies got 25 gold, 31 silver and 27 bronze for 83 medals, Columbus Isles Flamingos had 21 gold, 20 silver and 37 bronze for 78 total and the Long Island Sheep Runners followed with 17 gold, 17 silver and 17 bronze for 51 total.

In softball where the Eleuthera Adventurers claimed the men’s gold over Grand Bahama, Long Island stunned New Providence for the bronze and Grand Bahama took the women’s gold over New Providence with MICAL snatching the bronze over Andros.

Bowleg, who just came from watching Eleuthera also win the men’s gold in basketball, said he was able to notice how the talent was spread across the islands in the various disciplines.

“I’m hoping that all federations and associations would see the diamonds in the rough and be able to develop them,” Bowleg said. “These games are uniting the nation through sports. “But it also gives us an opportunity to see some of the talent that we haven’t seen before and hopefully that can help us to remain as one of the top sporting disciplines in the world.”

With the seventh Bahamas Games already pegged for 2026, Bowleg said they intend to introduce the regional games where there are northern, southern and central games where the islands can be better prepared for the actual games.

“We want these islands to know that we haven’t forgotten about them,” Bowleg said. “We will continue with the development of those islands, just as we just completed the facilities in Cat Island.

:We will be in Abaco, Eleuthera, Exuma, Andros and all of the other major islands and we hope by the next games, all of these islands will have the proper facilities so that they can improve on their performances at these games.”

Despite the fact that everybody focuses on the overall champions, Bowleg mentioned the fact that teams from Eleuthera, Columbus Isles, Andros and Exuma were among the different winners.

As for the games itself, Bowleg said he saw a lot of excitement from the family and friends of the athletes competing. The support, according to Bowleg, was fantastic by the general public.

“As we continue to be united through sports, we will be able to move upward, forward and onward to continue to make this nation great over the next 50 years.

“And then we put on the aquamarine, gold and black colors to represent the country at the international level, we can truly mark our bearings as a sporting nation.”

In reviewing what transpired on and off the playing fields, ‘Bowleg said the GamesSecretariat through his Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture will ensure that whatever went wrong this year will be corrected and improved upon for 2026.