One door closes, another opens

THE CARIBBEAN CAN be at least moderately pleased at the outcome of the just concluded World Athletics Championships held in the United States north-western state of Oregon.

Not only did the region rack up a total of 15 medals, five of them precious gold, but the pride of the region’s athletics Jamaica, emerged in third place, ahead of such global giants (not just in a sporting sense but in terms of size and level of development) as China, Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Italy and France.

It represented a continued thrust to the top by once-classified “Third World” nations with Ethiopia runner-up in the medal table, and Kenya joining Jamaica in the top five medalling nations. In addition, tiny Grenada (one gold, one silver), the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas and Venezuela among Caribbean nations all had athletes reigning supreme while Barbados demonstrated its steady rise with a bronze medal, equal to the return of Israel, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.The two regional disappointments were Cuba and Trinidad and Tobago, neither of which were on the medal table.

It represents the continued rise of former “colonies” of European nations, which today, in spite of the formidable economic and social challenges they face, demonstrate the potential of their people, long locked behind colonial barriers. That war-torn Ethiopia could win as many gold medals as the UK, Germany, Italy and France combined, is certainly an indicator not to be ignored, nor is the fact that Peru, with all its socio-economic problems, won as many gold medals as Canada and Japan combined.

These indicators have a variety of explanations, but are indicators of the unlocking potential of former colonial territories. They reveal that in spite of the formidable socio- economic challenges they face, given opportunities, the athletes from such countries can be equal to, and in many instances superior in performance to those of highly-developed countries.

One must in particular signal out the tiny Caribbean nation of Grenada, our southern neighbour, by far the smallest country to be on the medal table with one gold and a silver to boot. For us in St Vincent and the Grenadines, that should be our biggest inspiration. Grenada has made use of its National Stadium to propel its way to the top, in track and field especially, but not singularly. May we use that example to strive to progress along a singular path.

All eyes now turn to the next immediate international event, the Commonwealth Games in the United Kingdom, beginning this weekend. While the athletics will not be of the same calibre as demonstrated in the just-concluded World Championships, it will nevertheless provide more opportunities for small countries to achieve success and, given the range of sports involved, cricket and netball among them, Caribbean nations are sure to be prominent.

As we congratulate the world champions, let us also wish the Commonwealth competitors all success in their endeavours over the next two weeks.