Contextualising success

Within the past two weeks, St Vincent and the Grenadines has had moments of sporting success that will go down as markers in our local history.{{more}}

They are not achievements that go over the moon, but nevertheless, they are worthy of mention and note.

What was significant is that three of the feats were firsts for St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Getting the ball rolling was Shaffiqua Maloney’s top place in the female 13-14 age group at the Central American and Caribbean Juvenile Championships in Curacao.

At those championships, Maloney claimed the heptathlon, a seven-discipline event. Never has this country come away with the top honours before at such championships.

After giving her the much needed standing ovation, before we had a chance to recline, Kineke Alexander was good enough to claim the gold medal in the 200 m at the Central American and Caribbean senior championships in Mexico, a week later.

Alexander also shooed in with a bronze medal in the 400 m, to record St Vincent and the Grenadines’ best showing at that senior championships.

Then, the continuum was extended with the sprint duo of twin brothers 17-year-old Roberto and Reuberth Boyd, who performed creditably at the World Youth Championships in Donetsk, Ukraine last weekend.

Both boys, who are 2013 graduates of the Bishop’s College Kingstown, reached the semi-finals of the 200 m, with Roberto also making it to the semi-finals of the 100 m.

Interestingly, all the achievements were in track and field.

The successes and rise of the twin brothers as potentially good sprint athletes are due in no small measure to their personal commitment and that of their coach Garth de Shong.

In between, the Under-23 netballers extended their stranglehold on the subregional tournament, when they notched up the 14th title.

Put into context, this has been our domain, our stomping ground, almost ours to lose, rather than to win.

Unfortunately, we have not made that transition from the Under-23 dominance to the wider Caribbean, despite our sporadic entry to the AFNA competitions.

Here is what should concern us — winning umpteenth subregional titles is unsatisfactory, as we are no longer a force to be reckoned with regionally.

Neither does St Vincent and the Grenadines possess that competitive edge at the Under-16 stage at the Caribbean Netball Association competitions.

Getting these fixed should be the main priority of the current executive of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Netball Association, otherwise we would just be celebrating OECS Under-23 glories almost every year.

This certainly will require going back to the primary schools, as well as bridging the divide in age groups from Under-16 to Under- 23, as many players are lost during those years.

In fact, we may just have to follow the likes of Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados in having an Under-21 set-up.

Success is relative and whilst we are able to muster a grin, especially in track and field, the returns are droplets in an ocean of investment, which the sport enjoys.

Many may say it is too little, too late, for what we are now getting from Kineke Alexander, who has benefitted from participation in several regional and international meets for more than a decade.

St Vincent and the Grenadines has not done as it should have, even on the regional track and field scene.

In our over 40 years of participating in the annual Carifta Games, the marquee junior track and field event, St Vincent and the Grenadines has just mustered 24 medals, with only three of them being gold.

Efforts should not be spared to give the likes of Maloney and the Boyd twins, among others who have shown the propensity to perform higher than the national threshold, as much support as they need in order to turn their potential into global medals.

It is noteworthy that most of the impact that track and field has made on the international scene has come from persons who reside overseas.

Therefore, it may not hurt us to explore all avenues to have them roped in for national representation.

These, along with other infrastructural and administrative developments, plus the will to give sport more priority, among other factors, can see us moving from participants to competitors.