New track will help athletes to reach potential
It’s a familiar story that cuts through a cross section of all our major sports. That is, an abundance of raw young talent that somehow fails to mature to the point where Belizean athletes play any kind of role on the world sporting stage. Today, that analysis was confirmed by an international athletic official who hopes the situation can be reversed. News 5’s Marion Ali reports.
Marion Ali, Reporting
Leaving Belize today after a series of meetings with different national sporting bodies was the Vice President of the International Association of Athletic Federation’s Amadeo Francis. Francis, who last visited in 1978, says while Belize has made several positive strides, there’s still room for growth.
Amadeo Francis, V.P., Intl. Assn. of Athletic Federation
“We’ve given a number of courses for coaches in collaboration with Olympic Solidarity and the National Olympic Committee. And our concern was how many of these coaches, some forty-eight were actually currently involved in developing youngsters in our sport. And we’re sort of disappointed to find that there are very few. This is a matter that we’ve brought to the National Federation. We expect that some effort will be made to get them involved to recycle them.”
According to President of the Belize Amateur Athletic Association, Nelson Hyde, there are several reasons why follow-up has been poor.
Nelson Hyde, Pres., Belize Amateur Athletic Association
“We have coaches in every district, and we do not see the result of coaching in every district. That’s one of the weaknesses that we have. There appears to be some communication difficulty and resources in our association to follow up on these things on our own, along with our normal administrative work. As you know, we are all volunteers, we have jobs to do, a family to look after, and then find time for athletics, and we do find time, but apparently, not enough time.”
But while time, or the lack thereof, may be one shortcoming, Francis said that if Belizean athletes had better training facilities, our chances of ranking among the world’s best would be far greater.
Amadeo Francis
“You can see very clearly that there is a tremendous potential, but that they haven’t had the opportunity to prepare themselves adequately for these meets.”
“Here when you hit dirt, you go in. When you hit a synthetic surface you rebound to it. It’s a completely different technique. And that puts your athletes at a tremendous disadvantage. You’ve done very well in these competitions despite that, but you’ve had a lot of injuries, you’ve had a lot of opportunities where you’ve lost by two centimetres or a tenth of a second, and that’s the difference.”
And according to Hyde, that’s one difference we’re trying to eliminate even before the new infrastructure is in place in Belize.
Nelson Hyde
“We already have on line young Jaheed Smith, working along with the Olympic Association, trying to get some specialise training in Jamaica later on this year before he goes to the World Youth Championships. We expect that maybe one or two more athletes may make these standards if we get them into the Carifta Games which is going to be April this year in Trinidad.”
But if Belize can get its new track together by the end of the year, Francis is sure that he can help with equipment that will make it easier for athletes to train right here at home.
Amadeo Francis
“I believe firmly that probably I could get up to a hundred thousand U.S. dollars for the purpose of providing the hurdles, the landing mats, the standards for high jump pole vault, that sort of thing. But that would only be possible if it’s a project that’s completed in 2003. Now why 2003? 2003 because that’s the end of our current mandate, we can make commitments only for this period. So the challenge really is in the hands of the committee or team that’s working on the track.”
More courses for coaches are expected to be available shortly.
