The Tribune

By TENAJH SWEETING

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Bahamian Olympian and sprinter Pauline Davis-Thompson criticised the head coaches of the major secondary schools for overworking athletes at the 2023 BAISS Track and Field Championships.

Despite her praising the efforts of star athletes on the final day of the inter-school competition, Thompson was disappointed to see CARIFTA qualifiers and potential qualifiers competing in so many track and field events ahead of April’s 50th CARIFTA Games.

Thompson talked about her personal beliefs as a former Olympian.

“It is my belief that the Bahamas National CARIFTA trials should take precedent over any track meet especially now that we are going to be hosting the CARIFTA Games at home, there is no way that athletes should be running [in] these bunch of events for their high school, it shouldn’t happen,” Thompson said.

Thompson added that it becomes too much on the young legs of the athletes as they prepare for the CARIFTA Games.

The 2000 Olympic gold medallist also wished to see improvement in the technical work of young athletes as a big fan of the sport.

“There are a lot of things I can see that needs to improve. I am a bit disappointed to see the technical work of the athletes with the way they run and the way they walk,” Thompson said.

Thompson believes that a lot more can be done to improve the technical work of athletes ahead of the CARIFTA Games and moving forward.

SAC head coach Jason Edwards responded to Thompson’s criticism that athletes were overworked during the 2023 BAISS Track and Field Championships.

“Most of these kids that did these events were not forced to do these events, we spoke to their coaches and some of their coaches actually asked us to put these kids in these events,” Edwards said.

He added that although an outsider might look at it from a different perspective, the track coaches of the young athletes looked at it from the perspective of loading up and then offloading the workload of the athletes ahead of the CARIFTA trials.

Although Thompson had her criticisms about the way athletes were used ahead of the major track meet, she maintains that it was great to see them compete.

She was proud to see the future track and field stars and said she hopes to see a lot more.

The opening ceremony for the Government Secondary Schools Sports Association (GSSSA) Track and Field Championships is scheduled to begin 10am tomorrow at the Thomas A. Robinson Stadium.