The Tribune

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

THE construction of the South Andros multipurpose gymnasium has been in the works for almost a decade and now, with the facility only needing some finishing touches, it can be fully operational by June 6, according to MP for Mangrove Cay, South Andros and Central Andros Leon Lundy.

The state-of-the-art venue was recently utilised to host the Bahamas Basketball Federation (BBF) Round Robin Tournament over the weekend in South Andros. It was the first major national event to get underway at the newly built gymnasium and second sporting event to take place at the facility.

The Danny Pratt Invitational Basketball Tournament christened the venue in October last year.

“This is the second event we had. The organisation was a lot better this time around and we were testing it out again to see whether or not we could host a major event.

“We hosted a high school event in October last year and this one here was [to see] whether we could get on that national level. I could tell you we have plans to open up the gym earlier in the summer. We have a date tentatively set for June 6,” Lundy said.

The Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) believes that the venue can provide a major economic boost for the community in South Andros which was seen over the weekend due to the BBF Nationals.

“Economically, this will be a major boost for us. As you can see, with these two events everywhere was sold out, we didn’t have rental cars and I had to come through Mangrove Cay because all the flights were sold out. “It will definitely be a boost and anything that injects anything economically into the Family Islands is much needed,” he said.

As for development, the MP for Mangrove Cay, South Andros and Central Andros is hoping to host clinics for the youth to aid in preparing them for the big stage.

“Being here at this tournament I had one of our coaches come up to me who wants to do a programme for some of the young primary school students in the area. “We are about to host some clinics. It is all about getting them ready for the world out there and showing them that they have facilities to train on to be ready for that world-class stage,” Lundy said.

When the construction of the South Andros Gymnasium was in its initial phases, the plan was to use the facility for the various sporting disciplines and as a hurricane shelter for the island. “We are gonna make sure that we are ready for this hurricane season and this building could be used in the event.

“Hopefully, God spares us and we don’t have a storm but, in the event that we have one, we will be ready for that time.

“There are just some small tweaks that we need to do and we will be ready for it. The parking lot needs to get finished but inside we just need to make sure that the offices have furniture and everything else,” he said.