Belizean athletes return home

A small delegation of young Belizean athletes is back home after participating in an athletic competition in Costa Rica. Today a press conference was called by the Belize Amateur Athletic Association and the National Sport Council of Belize to welcome the Belize team. However, the news was both good and bad as the media learnt about the team’s trials and tribulations.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting

The young athletes of the Belize team did their best, despite a number of problems that plagued them as they represented Belize at the Central American Junior Track and Field Championships held in Costa Rica. The team’s flight to the games was delayed by two days and accommodation and transportation in the host country, turned out to be far less than nice. Nelson Hyde, President of the Belize Amateur Athletic Association says they are not bashing Costa Rica, but things were simply not up to par.

Nelson Hyde, President, BAAA

“The stadium’s track was asphalt and it was not in good repair. Also it was raining terribly during the scheduled times for events and a lot of the scheduling was done. At times the scheduling was so confusing that the head coach and the chief delegate had different time schedules. So that eventually 2 of our athletes missed their events. The medical attention was almost non-existent and I understand also that extreme measures had to be taken to get attention when it was needed.”

To make matters worse, the team’s premier sprinter Jaheed Smith was disqualified because he ran in the wrong age group category. BAAA’s First Vice President, Josephine Flowers says if they had known about the change in the age group for male competitors, they never would have let Smith compete.

Josephine Flowers, First Vice President, BAAA

“We received the print out of the names of the athletes who are in each event, Jaheed Smith’s name occurred on several. So I had to go and get a number for him. The number was issued, so we flew Jaheed up and sent him to compete. Because Panama also had the problem, they took more than one athlete, they took several athletes in that same age group. They were as confused as us because none of us got any minutes of the meting saying that this was the decision made during that period.”

Jaheed Smith, Athlete

“I was told by my coach after finishing the race cause they had disqualified me because I was too young. I felt really sad because I was always told that an infant can go up, but a junior cannot come down to the infant level. So I didn’t understand why.”

Belize, which had the smallest contingent, placed 6th out of the 7 countries competing in the championship games. The athletes who spoke about the competition, says even though in numbers they didn’t rank well, they know they performed well.

Tracy Garnett, Athlete

“Well last year when I went to Puerto Barrios they had this young lady from El Salvador. She had always been my competition. Her name is Maria Gabrielle. My goal was to beat her this year and I did, but for one event. In triple jump, she beat me back.”

Robert Kidd, Athlete

“Well they were both easier than last year, but for the silver, I did not do my best in the triple jump because that was the day that the bus came late. And when we arrived, they didn’t want to give me my jumps. They only gave me one jump and I couldn’t mark my spot from where to run from. So that’s the reason that I lost the triple jump and got silver. The reason why I didn’t do my personal best in the shotput and the high jump was because they were both happening at the same time. As I was through with the shotput, I had to go jump the high jump so I was tired.”

Jackieva Castillo, Athlete

“Well it wasn’t hard enough, but it wasn’t easy. It is the fact that we had a little time to train and due to Mr. Evans absence for a while, that is the reason we had a hard…well let me talk about myself, I had a little hard time because I trained for two weeks and that two weeks I wasn’t that constant.”

Despite their many obstacles, the athletes did bring home honours. 4 gold, 4 silver and 8 bronze medals also came back on the plane. The athletes say they know they have to do their part to improve but say a better track to train on for international games is needed.

Hyde says there are a number of issues that need to be addressed urgently in order for sports to improve in Belize. Hyde says he hopes the Ministry of Sports, BAAA, sporting organizations and the community can get together to work out a solution to the problems that plague Belizean athletes.