National Sports Council welcomes home athletes
Anthony Michaels
They brought back the medals from Panama over the past week after competing at the Central American Games. The Belize delegation was not huge in numbers but the groups that competed in the different disciplines proved that there is talent among our young athletes, regardless of the limited resources. Today, the National Sports Council officially welcomed the delegation back home during a press conference at the City Center. And while the resources are limited the performances did not reflect that reality as organizers say.
Anthony Michael, Executive Director, National Sports Council
“They said we are so close. Yes, we came second, we came fourth and so forth but when you’re looking at the time disparity we are right there with them. When you look at softball that came back with the bronze, I think a lot of teams out there were very scared of playing Belize in panama and the girls came back in their hearts feeling they made some errors but we think we are still better than them and that shows a significant improvement from where we were. In terms of track and field, there were also some of the people in the media indicating why we only sent so little people from track and field. The government of Belize and the National Sports Council does not really interfere and meddle in the day to day activities of the various federations. We do not interfere in cycling, we do not interfere in track and field, in body building, in volley ball; you guys have your constitution which governs you. All what we do as a government is to facilitate the process. So if they’re sending one athlete, if they’re sending ten athletes, they ask us to find the money, we try and find the money, we try to do whatever it needs to support whoever they want. So that problem should lodge with the federation and so forth.”
Ned Pitts, Assisted Central American Games Team
Ned Pitts
“The Olympic Committee, through the Olympic Solidarity, we have always tried to give funding to every single organization. We are very pertinent with the teams we are coaching because coaches play an important part in the developing of the field. And every year we take individual organizations and we have a tendency that we provide at least twenty thousand dollars for that organization to hold coaches courses for the individual association. Not every association gets it every year; we sort of say if you get it this year, two years time you come back. That is in order to assess what has progressed in your coaching; not just get your certificate and put it on the wall there. We do that.”
Michael says the Ministry of Sports is now looking to strengthen the Sports Act to give the government more authority and involvement in the affairs of the various federations that participate in these events.
