Addressing Challenging Athletics Season
The local track and field competition season is in full swing and many are looking forward to the finals of the annual Inter Primary Schools Athletics Championships (IPSAC) and the Inter Secondary Schools Athletics Championships (ISSAC) scheduled for the 25 and 26 March, respectively.
Preliminary analysis of the results of several of the schools international Inter-House competitions reveals some progress in different areas amidst numerous challenges that are evident in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Our overseas athletes have been making progress as well and there is hope that we can have competitive chances at the regional and international events later in the year.
Over the weekend, 7 – 8 March, Team Athletics SVG (TASVG) will host its annual Lennox Adams at the track at Diamond. The weekend competition is named officially as the Lennox Adams National U20 Championships.
Last weekend, Handal Roban won his Conference Finals in the Indoor 800m and was second in the 600m. Uroy Ryan, this nation’s Triple Jump record holder, won the event at his Conference Finals. Both athletes are eagerly looking forward to the NCAA Indoor Finals.
Amal Glasgow has also been doing well in the 400m at NCAA events.
Handal and Shafiqua Maloney had made the standard for the respective male and female 800m at World Indoors, 20 – 22 March, in Poland. However, Shafiqua has indicated she will not be doing indoor competitions this year, focusing on the outdoors. She will not be competing in Poland.
Schools Competitions
Some of the nation’s primary schools began having their athletics competitions near the end of the first term of the current 2025/6 academic year. Those that did so would have had their athletes for the IPSAC in training and would benefit from a longer preparation period of their athletes. For some however the tracks near them vary in sizes, leaving them more than a little disadvantaged in several ways.
Interestingly, some of the secondary schools have also been using a variety of tracks of different dimensions, leaving their athletes as disadvantaged as their primary school counterparts, for the same reason.
Schools that used larger tracks have generally seen better performance es from their prepared athletes than is the case where smaller tracks have been used. The reason is simple. The smaller 200m tracks have very sharp turns that force the athletes to restrict their speed in order to better negotiate around them. These sharp turns also negatively impact the performance of taller athletes with longer stride action.
It is unfortunate that the general planning of playing fields were done, historically, without much consideration for any sport other than cricket. Track and field athletics, which yields this country’s best results in regional and international competitions, including multisport Games, were never considered enough of a priority to receive the consideration that the sport deserves.
With some primary schools having the benefit of physical education teachers and some with coaches to help during the preparation phase, we have witnessed better performances that those that do not yet have the benefit of such personnel. The difference is seen in the times produced by the athletes in their respective school championships and the early phases of the IPSAC, which began last week.
It is important to note that children exposed to physical education and sports as a subject in the nation’s school system fare better, generally, in sport and are more likely to adopt an approach to their physical well-being that their counterparts that have turned their backs on the twin-discipline.
The good physical education teacher is more likely to attract and retain the attention of their students to the long-term benefits of adopting a healthy lifestyle, personal discipline, respect for fellow students and emerge from their school years better prepared for personal advancement.
Athletics aficionados expect athletes from Georgetown to be much more competitive at the IPSAC than hitherto.
Much work has been undertaken at the Calliaqua Primary school and the athletes are also expected to show major improvement at IPSAC 2026.
At the secondary school level, we have had some fairly good performances. However, it does appear that the same outstanding schools of the past will continue to dominate.
It is unfortunate that some schools chose the Victoria Park for their more mature athletes, risking injury to their athletes, especially when rain falls and greater care must be taken to negotiate the tight turns.
While we are a small nation, we are blessed with abundant sporting talent. Consideration may well be given to the construction of a synthetic 400m track on both the Leeward and Windward sides of St Vincent. This would yield tremendous results in the future if realised.
The All-Leeward Schools athletics competitions have positively impacted the schools on the Windward side of St Vincent and the evidence suggests that these events will grow in significance and overall performances. The provision of an all-weather surface will significantly enhance all aspects of athletics in both these areas, in particular.
Efficient transportation between the Grenadines’ islands suggests that there may well emerge a Grenadines schools competition on an annual basis just as is the case with Windward and Leeward Schools. The same principle may lead to a Kingstown competition and in the Marriaqua Valley.
Coaches and coaching
TASVG has trained scores of coaches in track and field athletics over the years, Many have not been functioning while others seem not too anxious to upgrade themselves through available opportunities on offer.
Athletes are as good as the coaching they receive. The coaches are aware of this and at times lose sight of the bigger picture of our athletes gaining more opportunities to successfully achieve their best in the chosen discipline within the sport.
There is every reason for the coaches in the sport of athletes to work more collaboratively. There is room for all trained and practising coaches to enhance their careers. This is as true of St Vincent and the Grenadines as it is across the Caribbean. The achievements of Paul Phillip, Throws Coach, of Grenada and who has helped our coaches with the coaching athletes in the same discipline here, has produced a world Champion and several Carifta champions.
As small island nations, we need our qualified personnel in every field to work together for the nation’s benefit. Each coach will get his share of commendation when his athletes are successful, but they can all benefit from greater interaction and collective enhancing of their coaching skills.
Girls being left behind
A notable challenge emerging across the Caribbean is the decline in female athletes. Even in a country like Jamaica, globally renowned for producing female athletes, there is a noticeable drop-off in female athletes in their post 19th year.
Over the years we have witnessed an absence of females taking on the responsibility associated with coaching, especially girls. At a time when at the international level, female coaches are rivalling their male counterparts in successful coaching, we appear to find immense difficulty in attracting and retaining female coaches even to work with female athletes.
The recent surge in interest in safe sport and safeguarding in track and field athletes as well as other sports, should be a catalyst to Vincentian females to gravitate towards coaching in sport, especially in athletics, the nation’s most successful sport.
There is an appeal put out by TASVG for females to come forward to become coaches in the sport. Every effort will be made to facilitate the training of females interested in coaching in in all aspects of track and field athletics, beginning with the CANOC Caribbean Coaches Certificate Programme (CCCP), Levels I and II, introducing people to the fundamentals of coaching.
It is therefore anticipated that this year, while there will be large numbers of female athletes at IPSAC, the numbers at ISSAC may well be smaller, percentage-wise. Additionally, from the competitions that have taken place around SVG over the past several months, the competitive standard of the female athletes is well below expectations. In this regard, there is much work to be done and one hopes that women will favourably respond to the TASVG’s appeal for women to come forward to be trained as coaches in track and field athletics.
