Let’s use the positives in Vincentian sport
Over the past several months Vincentians have had some good news in sport. However, we have a tendency here to underplay the importance of our achievements and at times, behave as though we have nothing but criticisms, to offer to the national population. On the contrary, in the global community, especially in the advanced industrial nations with significant contribution from everywhere in respect of making resources available for sport development, even the most minimal achievement is given attention, and positively so.
It is a bothersome thing that we witness incremental advances in different aspects of sport but choose instead to ignore them, without necessarily recognising that it is to our national detriment that we focus so heavily on being critical rather than being honest and eager to help advance the work in sport in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Shafiqua et al at the Olympics
In the recent past the achievement of Shafiqua Maloney by running herself into the final of the 800m women’s event at the Summer Olympics, Paris2024, will remain an historic first for St Vincent and the Grenadines.
As mentioned at one of the events in celebration of Shafiqua’s achievement, her achievement is the latest for the sport of athletics in St Vincent and the Grenadines. The achievers before her ought not to be forgotten since they were instrumental in shaping the sports history for our small, multi-island developing State.
This country’s first multi-sport medal came through Maurice King in 1959 at the Pan American Games in Chicago, Illinois, while competing under the banner of the West Indies Olympic Committee, when the region was the West Indies Federation.
Eswort Coombs earned a place in the semi-final of the 400m at the Centennial Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, in 1996. He was the first track and field Vincentian athlete to win a medal at the Pan American Games, while contesting the 400m final in Mar del Playa, Argentina, in 1995. He won our first and only gold medal at the World University Student Games in Fukuoka, Japan, in the same year.
Natasha Mayers won our lone gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in 1990 when they were in Delhi, India. She won the 100m.
Handal Roban is the first Vincentian to win gold at the Central American and Caribbean Games when they were held in San Salvador, El Salvador, in 2023. He won the 800m for men while Shafiqua earned a bronze medal in her 800m final.
During the latter part of the 2024 athletics season, Earl Simmons achieved a new national record of 10.13 for the 100m.
Shafiqua’s achievement in Paris is a continuation of a gradual development amongst Vincentian athletes, many of whom have had their fair share of challenges in getting the requisite support and access to resources that could easily have propelled them to higher levels of achievement.
Today, there is an increase in Vincentian athletics access to schooling and training in Jamaica and several American universities on scholarship. Some athletes are still not as fortunate to even benefit from the aforementioned access.
At the Paris Olympics, our swimmers, young as they are, gave relatively good account of themselves, achieving personal bests. They too are not as well supported as many would like them to be, especially in respect of access to high-level facilities, training and sport medical support.
Netball et al
Our young netballers regained the OECS championships title that they had lost to Grenada in last year’s annual tournament. They played unbeaten throughout the tournament which was played in St Lucia.
What was quite evident during the Netball Championships was the strong resolve of the team. They were well aware of the importance of reclaiming the title lost in 2023 and in every game played their commitment to the aforementioned objective was the source of their motivation for success.
The netballers have not really been given the commendation they deserve for their approach to the competition that they won. Like all sportspeople, our netballers are as deserving of our congratulatory support and appreciation for their success.
Our understanding of the negative impact of decades of begging for an indoor facility to be more readily prepared to compete against the rest of the Caribbean and the world is never given appropriate consideration.
Netball also needs access to international-level coaching even as one of our netball umpires continues to climb the ranks of the international federation’s officiating ladder. There is little acknowledgement of this achievement beyond an all too brief mention in the local media.
In football, playing at home, Vincy Heat won their second encounter against El Salvador, an historic feat about which not enough accolades have been given. But the team was very unfortunate, having thrown away their chances while playing and losing to El Salvador in their first encounter.
Vincentians love football more than any other sport played in the country. However, the fortunes of the team have been all too sporadic. The most consistent performances still remain with the team of the late 1980s.
With each new team, the local fans look forward to learning the names of players whose capabilities lead them to be considered as favourably as those who impressed in years past. This does not have frequently enough and so the sport has lost some measure of support. Still, we should acknowledge the successes that have come our way thus far and encourage the federation and the team to continue to strive after more successes.
Even with the resources at its disposal, however, the federation for football has to continue to seek higher levels of support around the country and facilitate access to the requisite facilities and team-building exercises that are critically important in the growth and development processes.
The sport of cricket can genuinely boast of its achievements. The former president of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Cricket Association, Kishore Shallow, is now the President of Cricket West Indies, and an influential voice in global cricket developments.
We are yet to get the full details of the recently held Cricket T20 World Cup held in the Caribbean and USA, but we are certain that the global of the event has been remarkably historic.
One Vincentian umpire has been recently elevated to the international panel, a first for our nation and the sport in our country. Here again, we have failed to extend kudos for the success attained in this regard.
Netball has long had representation on Americas Netball, the continental organ of the international federation and must use this to enhance the development of the sport in the country as much as it is supposed to do throughout the continent.
Our volleyballers are also on the improve. With the help of the international Volleyball Federation (FIVB) and its combined support with the continental organisation, NORCECA and the OECS Volleyball organisation, our volleyballers are benefitting from more training and competition opportunities on an annual basis and greater access to the international fraternity.
Squash has grown much more serious than has been the case for some time and is now in need of a more comprehensive facility that would yield significant growth, development and successes. Given that the country’s major facility is located in the same building as the National Lotteries Authority (NLA), one would have expected that the latter, with a mandate ‘to support sport and culture’, would have readily taken on the challenge of being the sporting federation’s major partner and sponsor. This has not been the case. We nonetheless seize the opportunity here to suggest that this must change and the NLA commit to developing the facilities through annual sponsorship and support.
Lessons to be learnt
For whatever reason, we seem either afraid or unwilling to savour the successes we have made in sport and learn from them.
The aim of every sporting organisation must be to build upon its successes.
We must learn from our mistakes, of course, but we must do much more following on from our achievements.
Whatever we did to succeed must be an inspiration to all stakeholders to use them to improve and do so much better, going forward.
Together, sports administrators in St Vincent and the Grenadines must sit together, craft a joint development strategy, share best practices and allow collaboration to become the norm in our country.
It is not enough for us to be able to highlight one or two individual achievers. We must celebrate them and work with them to become the inspirers and influencers of the nation’s children and youth.
Every Vincentian child must be imbued with a strong sense of empowerment and capacity to achieve success in sporting endeavours in their own and the country’s future. They must grow up believing in themselves and their immense potential as individual Vincentians.
We must encourage the careful crafting of a national sport culture in St Vincent and the Grenadines, allowing for physical literacy to be the third pillar in our education philosophy alongside numeracy and literacy. This way, we can inculcate in our nation’s children a sense of being capable of always being physically active throughout their lives and readily capable of being successful in sporting endeavours.
Let us take the time to engage, as Vincentians, in being positive in sport. Let us take the positive achievements and encourage the athletes and all stakeholders to encourage, not be overly destructively critical.
Let us make it easier to build rather than destroy our talented youths. Let us together, build a much more deliberatively positive, Sporting St Vincent and the Grenadines.
