The Spirit of the 2012 Olympic Games in the Capital

It’s the countdown to the 2012 Olympics to be held in London. The event takes place from July twenty-seventh to August tenth. If you do the math, it’s a hundred days away. Earlier today, diplomats from the host country teamed up with Olympic Committees in numerous countries to build up fervor to the games. In Belize, a hundred kids took part in a race to highlight the 2012 games. News Five’s Delahnie Bain reports.

Delahnie Bain, Reporting

This past Wednesday marked exactly one hundred days to go before the 2012 Olympics in London. The event is highly anticipated globally and in Belize, it was highlighted today with a launch and symbolic hundred meter races at the Governor General’s Field in Belmopan.

Pat Ashworth

Pat Ashworth, British High Commissioner

“This is a hundred days to go until the beginning of the Olympics so throughout the world all British Diplomatic posts, along with the local Olympic committees are trying to draw attention to the games and to the local teams who are going to take part in the Olympics. So we’ve got a hundred kids, running a hundred meters with a hundred days to go.  There’s been a spectacular transformation in the part of London where the Olympics is going to be held.  The huge Olympic stadium is one of the most green, most friendly; it only has about ten thousand tons of steel and it’s an absolutely amazing event that you’re going to see. The mayor of Belmopan was there with a group of mayors a year ago and he was saying how wonderful it looks and it’s just an amazing thing.”

There is also excitement among local athletes and sports fans since Belize will be represented at the Olympic Games, which will run from July twenty-seventh to August twelfth.

Yolanda Fonseca

Yolanda Fonseca, Belize Olympic & Commonwealth Games Assn.

“We know definitely that there will be two. Mr. Kenneth Medwood has made the B standard and so he is definitely eligible to go in his own right. Then we have Miss Kaina Martinez, in whom we have been investing some monies for training to prepare her for the event.  These are the definite. We have what we call a wild card; this is like an invitation where you apply and we have applied in three different disciplines: in cycling, in shooting and in judo. If we get the wildcard in any of these disciplines then we definitely will have an increased delegation.”

Kaina Martinez

Kaina Martinez, Track and Field Athlete

“I’m feeling good going into it knowing that I will be representing Belize and knowing that I will also be representing the younger athletes that are coming up and may seek to go into or continue the track and field thing in Belize.”

Track and Field athlete, Kaina Martinez, left Belize and headed to Texas today to train for the next three months leading up to event.

Kaina Martinez

“I’m expecting a lot of work. I’m expecting to be corrected of my mistakes, knowing that I’ve been training on my own. So I’m looking forward to correcting my mistakes that I’m not actually seeing.”

Yolanda Fonseca

“Mr. Collin Thurton, who participated in our first Olympics participation in 1968 in Mexico is actually a coach in El Paso Texas along with a club and he also trains at a university. He has offered an invitation through the club for her to get her training and this afternoon that is what Kaina is doing, she is going to undertake her three months training from here up to the actual day that we leave Belize to go to London for the events.”

But there may be another race to look forward to, as British High Commissioner Pat Ashworth jokingly put forward his own challenge today.

Pat Ashworth

“I’d like to have something to bid goodbye to the Belize team when they leave as well. And as this is a hundred meters, with a hundred kids and a hundred days to go I’ve challenged the mayor and the governor general, when we have ten days to go we’ll have ten kids and I’m prepared to run ten yards with them.”

Ashworth say he will be rooting for the Belizean athletes as much he does for the British team. Delahnie Bain for News Five.

The Olympics were previously hosted in London 1908 and in 1948.