The unfortunate realities in local sports

LIFE IS FILLED with unexpected events, which cannot be planned for, nor their courses changed.

One readily accepts natural disasters, political or social upheavals as plausable occurrences that one has little control over.

However, there are some situations if the necessary support systems are in place, the overall negative impacts can be lessened.

A case in point, is that inevitable shift in the schedule for this year’s Inter- Primary Schools’ Athletics Championships (IPSAC) and the Inter – Secondary Schools’ Athletics Championships (ISSAC).

Occasioned by St Vincent and the Grenadines senior men’s football team – Vincy Heat’s play off match against Guadeloupe in March, in the CONCACAF Nations League, this country’s main venue, the Arnos Vale Playing Field, the track and field events had to be pushed back.

This is not new, as it has happened in the past with the late scheduling of matches in the regional four-day cricket tournament.

But, irrespective of the circumstances this time around, with the proper planning, things could have panned out differently.

It therefore means that IPSAC and ISSAC will now be hosted in the third term.

Whilst it may be just about three weeks after the original scheduled time, several variables would interfere with the new set dates.

It however would test the seriousness of our physical education teachers and coaches who are responsible for the preparation of the athletes.

With ample notice of the postponement, athletes and coaches will now have to reset their cycles as they seek to maximise their performances at IPSAC and ISSAC, which undoubtedly are the marquee events in the national sporting calendar for both the primary and secondary schools.

It would mean that athletes would have to be mobilized during the Easter vacation for training, in order for the schools to have a tab on them.

But with all the adjustments and reprogramming that have to be done, the current state of affairs would not be up for discussion,

if the authorities had been serious with sports and taken heed by developing a second sporting facility, that is just one step down from the Arnos Vale venue.

This column has long been an advocate for the authorities to see it to provide St Vincent and the Grenadines with such a second facility.

Hopefully, the imminent ground breaking procedure that should pave the way for the construction of an athletics track at Diamond, may be some glimmer of hope.

But, apart from avoiding what has happened with the clash of the football match and the staging of the schools’ track and field finals. By the same token, many years have gone by and the St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation has not in an aggressive manner pushed to have a field to call its own.

Certainly, many of the woes faced by that organisation as it relates to scheduling of its tournament matches would have been reduced.

But as this column brings to the fore some of the unfortunate happenings in Vincentian sports at this juncture, it would be remiss not to mention that the National Sports Council has to go in search of a new manager.

Reports are that Miles Bascombe is no longer in that position.

Such regular changes in the managerial position of that crucial facet in sports here in this country, cannot be good for development.

From a distance, that position of NSC manager, seemed not to have the glamour and glitter, hence, in recent times, the faces have changed so often.

But to every challenge there is a solution or solutions, once persons especially in positions of clout are willing to make the right decisions which best suits St Vincent and the Grenadines’ sports, and more so national development.