Track alert

The call for at least a synthetic track for St Vincent and the Grenadines must now be like a daily prayer which has been unanswered for a very long time.{{more}}

Records would show that since St Vincent and the Grenadines first participated in the Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea in 1988, there was the notion that we should get a synthetic track, as part of a bigger package – a national stadium.

Years of pontificating on the matter have made some weary of even making another intercession. But the promise of a national stadium by the current political administration of this country, in the early period of this century, reawakened the expectations that one was forthcoming.

After more than a decade, Vincentians have received neither, whilst our track and field programme becomes an exercise almost of wasted output, but which ensures that the discipline is kept as one of the avenues of sporting expression.

Our best facilities – the Arnos Vale One Playing Field and the Victoria Park — are the main venues for track and field, although athletes have to juggle with other sporting disciplines, cultural shows and church functions for their use. Even though they are our best, they do not offer what is required for our athletes to get ahead.

Their sand based make-up is not ideal for traction; thus, athletes are unable to perform at optimum, as they should.

This is not to say that the surfaces which are available are the main cause of their times, but it is significant in the overall scheme of things.

But track and field is at the biggest disadvantage, as there are countless cricket venues, football has several places to turn to; netball has many apartments, while swimming, squash, tennis and court volleyball have exclusive occupancy.

With the limitations of a secure base to hone their skills, Vincentian athletes are not just struggling to keep up with their counterparts in this part of the globe, but are straggling behind.

Stories are aplenty of our young athletes who get a culture shock when they are asked to compete on unfamiliar surface – a synthetic track, even within the Caribbean region.

For some, however, it is a dream come true to experience such a surface.

Our athletes who attended the Caribbean Union of Teachers Games at the Haseley Crawford Stadium in Trinidad and Tobago can attest to that.

So, three years ago, when Michael Tovar of MONDO track visited here to do some investigations into the possibility of us getting a synthetic track, interest was sparked once again.

This, however, was shortlived, as it soon evaporated into nothingness, rhetoric and the fast forwarding of phantom problems and concerns.

Instead of pursuing getting the much needed track, the innocuous red herring debate was centred on where the track should be placed — Sion Hill or at the proposed site of the national stadium at Diamond.

In 2015, we are still at square one, no track, no stadium, no push to have in place even the former.

What we do have are a few hundred young athletes, who are yearning to get that lift, that sense of appreciation that some people care about their athletic development.

Those in authority are exhibiting a singular lack of political will to give the potential athletes the minimum facility – at least a synthetic surface to train on.

One readily accepts the financial constraints of funding such an undertaking as putting down a synthetic track.

In the event that the authorities are unaware, there is funding that can be sourced by international bodies for such a venture. Are those in authority aware that Vincentians in the main are a contented set of people and would be thankful for small mercies? Therefore, a synthetic track, with few lanes at least, as a training venue, would suffice until better can be done.

St Vincent and the Grenadines can copy what was done in Antigua and Barbuda, which possesses a simple track; not of international standard, but sufficient to take care of track and field business on the island.

But over time, those in authority are forever paying lip service to sports, yet expect to bask in the glory when someone off their own will and determination excels.

Who has that will to serve the country’s youth population’s sporting desires will remain in political office for a long time.