Good, better, best

The organisers of the annual St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College Sports Awards programme continue not only to raise the bar, but get better each time the event is staged.

Suffice it to say that the third edition, held on June 20, 2024, at the College’s Hospitality and Maritime

Training Institute at Diamond, outdid the previous two, staged in 2022 and 2023.

Congratulations are in order to all those who received awards for standing out through the last twelve months in the college’s sports competitions.

Dissecting the highlights of the latest awards ceremony was a definite enhancement in the speeches by the respective winners of the categories.

Notably, while the recipients did not know of being the winners, they were equipped mentally to give the most appropriate responses, which in turn, were well received.

This preparedness augurs well for our young sportsmen and sportswomen, as they venture out into the sphere of work, and for those who pursue sports as a career choice.

Mention must be made of the presentation of awards to the “unsung heroes”, persons who have given yeoman service to the 2023- 2024 programme, but remained under the radar.

Of note too was the decision of the organisers to have the likes of Keo Davis, one of this country’s most promising male sprinters, given the honour to hand over the award to the Athlete of the Year.

Likewise, to have Shane Cadogan, who is still relatively young and an active swimmer be the featured speaker, kept the notion of giving the young people the opportunity to speak more to their peers.

All in all, the event was well planned and equally, properly executed.

The question is, can the organisers lift their standards even higher? So, one may ask what next for the organisers to better each year’s efforts?

This column sincerely believes they can, and soar to heights never achieved in events of that nature.

Critically, the college, through it’s hosting of their internal Sports Awards, is schooling the students and others who attend these functions in what is to be done to execute events that have some levels of panache and class.

Additionally, others looking in can learn from the standards set, as in some ways, we are lacking in paying attention to details and pursuing excellence at such undertakings by sporting and other organisations.

Among those who can take a leaf out of the college’s book are those in charge of the stop-start

National Sports Awards; as well as  the various national sporting associations that stage their internal award ceremonies.

But, as this exposition lauds the tenacity of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College’s

Sports Programme in its pursuits of providing outlets for its students and the wider community, some national sporting associations must be chided for not making the minimum to reward their top performers.

Conversely, Roxell John, at the hierarchy of the college, along with the planning committee of the Sports Awards, even as you endeavour to lift the standards, let not the excitement of the three editions lead you to recline on your laurels.

Neither should you tinker too much with the ensuing editions, as bettering the previous year does not entail changing wholesale many of the embedded structures and formats, that made the 2022, 2023 and 2024 ceremonies what they were.

In conclusion, as St Vincent and the Grenadines recovers from the ravages of Beryl and at the same time, prepare for salvaging what is left of Vincymas 2024, let moderation be the watch word as obviously, some sportsmen and women will part take of the remaining events.