THIS WEEK IN NACAC
Vol. 3
No. 4
23 January 2022
Conrad Francis is GAA new President
Grenada now has a new president at the helm.
Conrad Francis, a former athlete, coach and course instructor has won the contest for the organisation’s presidency at the GAA’s elective general meeting on Saturday 22 January 2022.
Francis, once the country’s Director of Sports following the resignation of Veda Bruno-Victor, also served as Competition’s director when Grenada hosted the Carifta Games in 2000 and again in 2016 as well as the Central American and Caribbean Championships hosted in 2003.
As a coach, he has served his country’s athletes at World Championships and Olympic Games.
The Grenada Athletic Association, at its Quadrennial Meeting on Saturday 22 January, 2022, held its Elections of Officers for the period 2022 – 2025. The new Executive comprises the following:
President – Mr. Conrad Francis (newly elected)
1st Vice President – Mr. Johnell Mitchell (newly elected)
2nd Vice President – Mr. Abrel Patrick (returned)
General Secretary – Ms. Desiree Stephens (newly elected)
Asst. General Secretary – Ms. Geraldine Thompson (returned)
Treasurer – Ms. Claudia Francis (returned)
Public Relations Officer – Mr. Kwame Hypolite (returned)
The new Executive will assume Office from January 30th, 2022.
Gender Leadership Webinar Series
NACAC will participate in the next programme in the World Athletics’ Gender Leadership Webinar Series, which will take place on Thursday 10 February 2022. The next in the series will be held under the theme, “How Gender Equality can provide the Winning Margin”.
According to World Athletics, the series, “will explore how inclusive leadership and coaching workforces in athletics can provide wider organisational success, efficiency, and effectiveness. Fairer and equitable working cultures not only benefit individuals within our athletics systems but can also improve the way we work as federations.”
Presented by Professor Leanne Norman, Director of the Research Centre for Social Justice in Sport & Society in the Carnegie School of Sport, Leeds Beckett University, UK, the programme “will reflect on your current individual and organisational thinking towards issues of diversity and inclusion and explore a different approach to addressing these. We will turn our attention away from ‘fixing women’, to ‘fixing systems’ to adopt a more holistic, longer lasting, and sustainable approach to tackling the age-old issue of gender inequality in athletics coaching and governance”.
NACAC is encouraging all of its member federations to participate in the Series given the importance of the various topics being covered. The invitation to the series is for both men and women.
Participants can choose from 2 sessions:
10.00 – 11.30 Paris Time (French Translation provided)
16.00 – 17.30 Paris Time (Spanish Translation provided)
Register now for this exciting event: HERE
Vincy Track News
Now a graduate student at the University of Arkansas, 2021 NCAA finalist, Vincentian athlete, Shafiqua Maloney, has begun the Indoor season in grand style.
Maloney recently won the 400m (52.33), a personal best that is good enough to rank her eight on the all-time list of her university, fourth on the world list and collegiate leader, all at once.
In winning the 800m (2:04.82), Maloney again placed herself as the NCAA leader for the event running NCAA leading times for the season. Her early season performances saw her being declared the SEC Co-Runner of the Week at the Arkansas Invitational.
Maloney also teamed up with her colleagues to produce a new 4×400 relay record, better the time they established in 2021.
Vincentian athletes in Jamaica also made the headlines in their own right.
Uroy Ryan NACAC gold medalist at the Championships in San Jose, Costa Rica, last year, won the Long Jump (7.23m) and finished third in the High Jump (1.95m).
World Junior semi-finalist in Nairobi, Kenya, and NACAC gold medallist, last year, won the the 1500m, in a personal best time of 3:56.78.
Back in the USA, Darria Matthias, was a member of the victorious 4x200m relay team of the Academy of Art University in California, as they produced a school record time of 1:41.34. The time also proved to be the fastest ever in NCAA Division II history.
NACAC’s Esther Maynard at Caribbean Games Seminar
Longstanding NACAC Technical Instructor, Esther Maynard, the assigned Technical Delegate to the Inaugural Caribbean Games, spent the past week in Guadeloupe, along with Technical Delegates of the six other sports that constitute the programme at the planned sporting spectacle.
Owners of the Caribbean Games, the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees (CANOC) convened a Seminar in Guadeloupe that brought together Technical Delegates with the local technical directorate for the Games and the Organising Committee of the Caribbean Games 2022 (OCOCG2022).
While in Guadeloupe, Maynard met with the athletics management and technical teams and engaged in a comprehensive visit to the training and competition facilities and the Games Village.
On the final day of the Seminar, the Technical Delegates and their local officials delivered a presentation to the OCOCG2022 and CANOC.
Maynard expressed satisfaction with the facilities available for the competition. There are some areas of minor concern that the OCOCG2022 has been made aware of and which are already being addressed.
The Inaugural Caribbean Games was scheduled for Trinidad and Tobago in 2009 but had to be cancelled following the outbreak of the H1N1 pandemic. Guadeloupe offered to host the Games for 2021 but this was postponed because of the Coronavirus pandemic. One year later, CANOC and the OCOCG2022 are hopeful that the pandemic would be under enough control to facilitate the realization of the event as scheduled, 29 June – 3 July 2022.
El Salvador Walking and Cross Country Championships 2022
The member federation of El Salvador conducted its 2nd in the National Walking Championships on Saturday 22 January, at the University of El Salvador (UES). The competition featured 32 athletes from five clubs – Athletic Lions, Betania, Calle Real, Cojute and Guayabal.
Winners were:
U14 Female Andrea Rivas (Guayabal)
U16 Female Tatiana Salaverría (Athletics Lions)
U18 Female Jessica Rodriguez (Guayabal)
U20 Female Galilea Echeverría (Cojute)
Senior Female Luz Martínez (Athletics Lions)
U14 Male Dilson Guzman (Guayabal)
U16 Male Nelson Rudy Beltran (Guayabal)
U18 Male Luis Menjivar (Guayabal)
U20 Male Bryan Mendez (Cojute)
Major Male Fernando Castaneda (Cojute)
The national representative team will now be selected to contest the Central American Race Walking Championship scheduled for Sunday 20, in El Salvador.
On Sunday 23 January the third of the El Salvador National Cross Country Championships were held at the Cavalry Regiment in La Libertad. 301 athletes from 22 clubs and teams participated.
The Championships were held using a 2Km circuit.
NACAC Athletics Coaching Science Series 2022 gets going
NACAC Coaches of all ages, years of training and experience, have already had the benefit of the first session (in English and Spanish) during the past week.
The Series, a collaboration between the NACAC Development Commission, the Coaches Working Group and NACACTFCA, got going with Spanish coaches on Thursday 20 January led by Diego Vela Lu, while NACAC’s Director of Coaches and Camps, Chester Morgan, led the first session for English-speaking coaches on Saturday 22 January.
Attendance, interest and engagement have been quite good. We anticipate that this will continue through the rest of the programme as shown below.
Attendees are reminded that all times in the programme are in Central Time which is two (2) hours ahead of Caribbean time and one (1) hour ahead of Miami time.
Conducted via Zoom / FREE registration is required – REGISTRATION LINK
All times CDT (GMT -6)
Se realiza a través de Zoom / Se requiere registro GRATIS – ENLACE DE REGISTRO Todo el tiempo CDT (GMT -6)
The rest of the Series:
Sesión 2 – Sistemas de energía y entrenamiento de sistemas
Thursday January 27th 6-8pm en español Martin Palavicini
Session 2 – Energy Systems & Energy System Training
Saturday January 29th 4-6pm in English Chester Morgan
Sesión 3 – Periodización: planificación del entrenamiento
Thursday February 3rd 6-8pm en español Martin Palavicini
Session 3 – Periodization: Planning of Training
SUNDAY February 6th 3-5pm in English Peter Thompson
NACAC is particularly proud of the interest shown by coaches, not only from our Area but also from other parts of the world.
Our coaches education programme can only be expected to continue on an upward path that builds on our past successes and blaze new trends.
Meetings this Week
Tuesday 25 January 2022
8.00am Eastern Caribbean Time (7.00am Miami Time) – Meeting – CONSUDATLE & NACAC
7.00pm Eastern Caribbean Time (6.00pm Jamaican Time) – Meeting of the NACAC Competitions Commission
Wednesday 26 January 2022
10.00am Eastern Caribbean Time (7.00am Miami Time) – NACAC Weekly Meeting
Thursday 27 January 2022
7.00pm Eastern Caribbean Time (6.00pm Miami Time) – Meeting of NACAC Council
Keith Joseph
P.O. Box 680, Kingstown, St Vincent and the Grenadines
Tel: (784) 457 9062 (H); (784) 457 2970 (O)
