Sandra de Graaf, a capacity support officer from Canada, has commended the National Olympic Committee (NOC) and the Commonwealth Games Association (CGA) of St Vincent and the Grenadines for their role in sports education among the nation’s youth.{{more}}

De Graaf, who arrived in St Vincent on Friday, will be working along with both sports bodies to mid-December, lending assistance to the administrative and technical departments.

Her trip here was made possible following a request of both the NOC and the CGA late last year to the Common Wealth Games Canada for a capacity support officer, which was approved for this year.

De Graaf, who has 10 years experience in sports, recently completed a five-year attachment at the Equestrian Federation of Canada, where she gained knowledge of major games preparation and general sports development.

She was also one of the individuals responsible for preparing some of the Canadian athletes for last summer’s Olympic Games.

De Graaf said yesterday she is pleased with the level of work of the NOC and the CGA.

“Just by reading through some of the flyers and the bulletins that were sent out, it seems like a really good base project that has been started, especially in the education programme, where they go out and speak to the students…

“I really look forward to this week sitting down with everybody in the office in different groups to discover more about what has been done to date and what they hope to do,” de Graaf said at the press conference yesterday at the NOC head-quarters.

“So, I really want to just further expand on what has been done so far and maybe get some new ideas and opportunities for the future,” she added.

Meanwhile, President of the National Olympic Committee Keith Joseph said the NOC and CGA are happy to have de Graaf on board.

The addition of de Graaf, he said, will be a major boost for both the NOC and the CGA. (AA)