Make 2025 a year of seizing opportunities
Over the years it has become tradition for people to be encouraged to take time at the end of one year to examine their performance during the period and to then make resolutions for the pending new year. While in many countries this is not necessarily the case, this Columnist encourages our Vincentian sporting community, at home and abroad, to be optimistic, take some time to take hold of every opportunity afforded them during 2025, and strive after excellence and more.
Life is about the process of becoming. It is therefore always advisable that we take time to make good on the promise with which we are fortunate enough to be blessed.
Shafiqua Maloney
In 2024, Shafiqua Maloney etched her name in Vincentian sporting history by placing fourth in the 800m Final in Paris2024. This saw her going one step farther than Eswort Coombs at the level of the Olympics. At the Centennial Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, in 1996, Eswort earned a semi-final berth in the men’s 400m. This came two years after his first 400m final at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, British Colombia, Canada, in 1994, and one year after earning bronze in the same event at the Pan American Games in Mar del Plata, Argentina and gold at the Central American and Caribbean Senior Championships in Guatemala City, Guatemala, and gold at the World University Student Games in Fukuoka, Japan.
But Shafiqua’s journey was fraught with challenges, most of which were financial in nature. Some may suggest that when the majority of the funding required for her preparation for Paris eventually came, it was late.
The hope, however, is that the funding required for her to continue at the highest level will have been agreed with the institutions that came forward for Paris. Prime Minister Gonsalves, in addressing the welcome reception at the Argyle International Airport in the latter part of 2024, made mention of his desire to see her ‘soar’ to the very highest level in her career and committed to assisting her on this path.
Shafiqua’s future success requires consistent funding, especially if she does not get sustained sponsorship from a sportswear company in short order. Indeed, given her identified needs, Shafiqua would need committed funding from local sponsors and the government (through the National Lotteries Authority – NLA) in order to meet her most basic ‘living’ needs as well as the continued athlete preparation requirements.
Team Athletics St Vincent (TASVG) and the Grenadines and the National Olympic Committee (SVGOC), have the responsibility to assist with attendance at major competitions under their respective mandates for which she has qualified. Neither of the two aforementioned organisations have the financial capacity to meet Shafiqua’s individual elite athlete requirements.
Vincentian sports
Athletics
Whilst TASVG has consistently been the leading performing sport in St Vincent and the Grenadines for more than a decade and a half, it is still not where it needs to be on the global stage. However, there is evidence of constant improvement and fortunately, this has led to more athletes earning athletic scholarships to schools in Jamaica and the USA, this academic year being an all-time high in this regard.
Development of the sport of athletics brings with it a greater demand for access to financial assistance for regional and international competitions even as the athletes benefit from assistance with university tuition and inter university competitions during their respective scholarship tenure. As an institution, TASVG receives duty-free concessions on equipment that it purchases for the continued development of the sport but does not benefit from any financial assistance from the NLA or any other arm of government, otherwise. It receives an annual Member Federation Grant of US $15K from World Athletics and a similar sum for a project from the same source.
Much effort will have to be placed on creating a funding base by attracting sources from within and outside of St Vincent and the Grenadines if the organisation is to build the Kids Athletics programme across the nation, guaranteeing a consistent flow of new and emerging talent in the sport.
The government’s provision of a stadium with work in progress, is a major boost and has allowed for significant growth in interest and participation. It has allowed for a 35-member contingent from Barbados to compete at our Carifta Trails in 2024 and the opportunity for athletes from neighbouring countries to follow suit in 2025.
Swimming
Swimming has generally been the second most successful sport in St Vincent and the Grenadines, having the benefit of its own expenditures on the creation of a six-lane 25m training and competition pool. The national federation’s three-time hosting of the OECS Swimming Championships has bolstered its regional image.
Swimming could grow but there has to be greater investment by the government in facilitating a full size pool and guaranteed assistance to children keen on participating in the sport. The reliance on a single, 25m pool does not offer enough opportunity for development
Opportunities exist for access to scholarships, but this will have to receive more attention in 2025 as the sport continues on its development path.
Football
With access to a tremendous amount of funds from its international parent body, FIFA, football in St Vincent and the Grenadine should have been much more developed than is currently the case.
2025 offers many opportunities for a major turnaround in the sport’s fortunes.
Ezra Hendrickson’s start as the national coach suggests a new approach that must be fully supported. Together with the work being undertaken by Theon Gordon while on secondment from the Ministry of Education, they can transform the sport at the technical level, facilitating continuous development amongst the certified coaches in the national fraternity, inclusive of those available and accessible in the Diaspora. They can shape a Vincentian football culture imbued by who we are as a sporting people.
The Vincentian people love football and positively respond to regional and international contests when played at home. 2025 offers an excellent opportunity to build on the availability of neighbouring countries to play more against each other, building their talent pool and committing to Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) principles, strategies and programmes.
Cricket
Vincentian cricket should use 2025 to exploit the fact that there is a Vincentian at the helm of Cricket West Indies, eagerly committed to the most transformative approach to Caribbean cricket development than at any other time in the sport’s regional history.
The growth in regional cricket competitions of different formats, added to the inclusion of the sport on the competition programme of the Summer Olympics in 2028, gives rise to excellent opportunities for a more scientific approach to the sport’s development strategies at the local level.
The upgrading of the nation’s premier cricket ground makes it much easier to attract teams from near and far to engage us in competitions as well as the organisation of camps and workshops during the year, leading to a new impetus towards team building, continuous technical and administrative development and event management.
While cricket continues to appeal to young people in St Vincent and the Grenadines, there has to be a new emphasis on recruitment of athletes, coaches umpires and the marketing of the sport at the local level in 2025 of wea re to have a chance of doing well in the Olympic qualifiers for LA2028.
Netball
The sport of netball is on a new development path that has seen the national team recapture its OECS Championship title. However, the road to getting where the sport needs to be is long and perhaps more than a little torturous. What is important is that there is an excitement that is engaging the sport now and 2025 may just be the right year for greater change.
Armed with a new constitution the SVG Netball Association seems delightfully committed to exploring available opportunities as well as creating new ones.
Other sports
St Vincent and the Grenadines has much to boast about in sport as we begin 2025.
Squash has been holding its own for some time and has expanded its reach in terms of seeking to host more regional competitions despite the limitations of available facilities. Efforts aimed at attracting, introducing and training new adherents to the sport will continue in 2025. This comes against the backdrop of attendance at and active participation in the international body’s Congress in 2024 and the establishment of critically important networks for the development of the sport here at home.
The Sailing Association has in place a Sailing Academy which has already received support from the international fraternity. The young sailors have already begun to show an abundance of talent which is being matched by enthusiasm for development to a level comparable with their Caribbean counterparts as well as those from farther afield.
While sailing, like cycling, is an expensive sport, grabbing hold of opportunities for learning and becoming proficient in the practice of the sport must be paramount for both in 2025.
Table Tennis cannot afford to relax on its laurels. Exciting times are ahead in 2025 as the coaching development experiences of the organisation’s head coach and technical director begins to have an impact across the nation.
With more table tennis boards available across St Vincent and the Grenadines, thanks in large measure to the Vincy Table Tennis Foundation started by George Silbersmidth, there is every reason to claim that table tennis has some distinct advantages on its side that must be exploited to the full in 2025.
With the number of hard courts spread across St Vincent and the Grenadines and the global popularity of the sport, the local Basketball Association should have no reason to be left behind in respect of its development in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
The incredible rise in appeal of 3 x 3 Basketball and the fact that is can be played almost anywhere, especially in densely populated areas, including in the street, suggests that with greater promotion and a commitment to rebuilding and re-focusing, the SVG Basketball Federation can use 2025 to make significant inroads on the sport’s national development.
Rugby, Gymnastics, Karate and Tennis are all on a development path that we should see much forward movement during the course of this year. We are sure that they will exploit available opportunities to grow and develop, reaching out to the nation’s children and youth, encouraging health living and eager competition at home and abroad.
Yet others
The sport of archery has started in St Vincent and the Grenadines and efforts are being made to facilitate its growth and development. The local authorities for the sport are seeking to satisfy conditions set by the NOC.
Boxing was suspended by the then international governing body. Just as the sport was making strides to get its act together, the IOC expelled that same governing body from the Summer Olympic Games. There is now a global attempt at encouraging the establishment of another international boxing body to govern the sport. Apparently, one that meets approval of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). 2025 therefore offers local boxing buffs an opportunity to pull itself together. Chess has been officially organised, not surprisingly, has been engaging in regional and international competitions. The expectation is that in 2025, efforts will be made to bring the sport to students around the country and so build capacity, host more competitions and be much more visible in the nation as well as farther afield.
