Making the Stadium work for us
We are nearing the first anniversary of the national stadium that is undergoing construction at the Diamond Estate.
We need to be mindful that the arena is still officially, the ‘Diamond Sporting Facility Project’. This translates into meaning that the facility is still a construction site and falls under the Ministry of Planning.
As yet, it has not been turned over to the ‘Stadium Committee’ and correctly so because of the extensive work that needs to be done to bring the facility up to the requisite international standard that will allow us to host regional and international competitions.
The track is completed but there is much more to be done.
Gratitude
Team Athletics St Vincent and the Grenadines (TASVG) has been quick to access use of the track and Diamond, given that it is the first official synthetic surface for athletics competition in the country.
TASVG remains grateful to the government for the provision of the surface and the promised completion of the facility.
Since being provided access, TASVG’s coaches have been making optimal use of the track. The benefits have already been seen in the performances of many home-based athletes from all across the nation.
The stadium has been the venue for several of TASVG’s Development Meets aimed at carefully monitoring the progress of athletes in training.
Thus far, the most significant competition held at Diamond was the National Championships. The approach to that event this year was different in large measure due to the challenges posed by the impact of the dreaded Covid-19 pandemic. Individual athletes were taken through a series of ‘qualifying’ meets that enabled the organisation to arrive at a manageable grouping for the Finals. In each case, care was taken to satisfy the health protocols implemented by the authorities and thankfully, there were no recorded instances of individual athletes, coaches and technical officials having contracted the virus from any of the activities held at Diamond.
It is unfortunate that for much of the year, many of the competitions at the regional and international levels have been compromised. Some were cancelled, like the annual Carifta Games, scheduled for 2021, while others had limited participation because of the travel, vaccine and quarantine restrictions that so vastly differed across the NACAC Area and the world.
Had many of the competitions been held, even with the restrictions on training here at home, we would have begun to see the difference that the provision of the synthetic track has begun to make on the performances of local athletes versus athletes from other countries.
For many months athletes and coaches have been using the stadium aware of the need to exercise caution as the perimeter drainage for water runoff from the track itself, had been incomplete. Thankfully, the said drainage is now receiving due attention and should be completed before the end of the year.
On the southern side of the track, some work is being done to allow for athlete safety on the one hand and protection of the surface itself with the construction of a retaining wall.
Because Diamond is prone to flooding, the authorities have, advisedly, begun to pay appropriate attention to the southern end of the stadium to ensure proper packing of the grassed area so that it could ultimately be used until an appropriate warm-up track is laid.
Equipment
The stadium needs equipment if it is to meet its mandate.
Over the past several years, TASVG has provided track and field equipment across St Vincent and the Grenadines and continues to do so. Several zones have been afforded access to the equipment and this has given rise to the numbers participating in the sport as well as enhanced performances and generally, higher skill competency levels.
Over time, more equipment of an international standard will be accessed and provided at the facility. A clear distinction will have to be made between equipment available to coaches and athletes for training purposes and those reserved for National Championships and regional and international competition.
It must also be said that the equipment is to be properly stored and a proper system for record-keeping of access and return of the equipment should be in place. There are examples of coaches seemingly acquiring TASVG’s equipment and virtually claiming them as their own, for exclusive use by their club members. Such practices are intolerable and unacceptable and serious sanctions are imposed on defaulters.
Attendant facilities
TASVG has begun to locate some equipment at Diamond but there is an urgent need for attendant facilities to make the stadium meet its mandate.
For one thing, there must be some sort of cover from the heat for all involved – athletes, coaches, technical officials and patrons.
At present, there is no place at the stadium where any of the aforementioned can go to escape the heat, even for a brief period during training. It is the same during competition when TASVG seeks to procure some tents.
There is also no storage for much of the equipment that would be required for regular use. This latter situation has been brought to the attention of the authorities and it is understood that it is receiving due attention.
It is the norm for countries desirous of hosting regional and international competitions that meet the established standards of World Athletics (formerly the International Association of Athletics Federations – IAAF), that a warm-up track is laid. This track must be of the same material as that used on the competition surface.
In the case of St Vincent and the Grenadines, the warm-up track is scheduled for a later phase in the construction process.
As it now stands, without the synthetic warm-up track, St Vincent and the Grenadines will only be able to host lower-level competitions. The Carifta Games, because it involves youths and juniors and is afforded special consideration by World Athletics, could be hosted at the facility at Diamond. However, there would still be a need for an appropriately designated warm-up area to be created to allow the competition not to be delayed by having athletes use the main track to conduct their warm-up immediately preceding their respective events.
There is an urgent need for a facility at or near the finish-line area to house the photo-finish and the meet management team. Ideally, this would be part of the main stand on the home straight where, at the upper level, with adequate visibility of the entire facility, other important facilities that work in tandem with the aforementioned grouping, can also be accommodated. We are nonetheless aware that conduits have been laid around the grid of the competition arena to allow for the cabling of the photo-finish officials. The actual cabling would now be needed to make the work if these officials more efficient and professional
There are no administrative facilities at the track as yet.
There is an urgent need for offices for the administrators of competitions, whether athletics of football, rugby or archery.
There must also be offices for medical and anti-doping officials for competitions held under the auspices of the respective international federations. This particular feature of the stadium must also possess its own toilets for the athletes being tested as well as appropriate refrigeration for the safekeeping of samples of tests conducted before transportation to designated international laboratories. The equipment needs of this department must also be stored either in the same area or as close to it as possible.
While announcers at competitions often use the field or an area near it to conduct their work, it is most appropriate that for athletics, they are housed in the covered facility near to the meet manager/photo finish officials thereby having easy access to start lists, changes and results.
Maintenance
The single most important aspect of the management of the newly constructed stadium is maintenance.
The history of sports infrastructure in St Vincent and the Grenadines, except for those that have been placed under the National Lotteries Authority be about sport rather than partisan politics. (NLA) is one of woefully inadequate maintenance. The Arnos Vale Sports Complex stands as the best testimony to the foregoing statement.
The reality is that the much-vaunted Area Sports Committees have floundered because of petty partisan politics. Somehow it seems impossible under the current political dispensation for Area Sports Committees to get beyond the politics of the day.
The national stadium requires professional administration in all aspects but maintenance in particular.
Already significantly exposed to the elements of wind-blown sea salt, allowed free passage resulting from the fact that the area was once the site of an airport, threatens to wreak havoc on the infrastructure. Meticulous maintenance must be a distinct priority.
It is difficult to find any of the surfaces laid at Diamond anywhere in the world with such proximity to the sea and its powerful array of destructive features.
The materials used on the attendant infrastructure must be selected based on careful analysis of the challenging environment in which the stadium is located.
It is important that we also acknowledge that the salt-filled air in the atmosphere at Diamond poses a great threat to the equipment used by athletes and their coaches. Here again, maintenance must be at a premium. When shots used for the throwing event rust, they eventually lose their original weight. This, therefore, runs the risk of not being of any use for World Athletics approved regional and international competitions since all equipment must be of specified weights for records, even national ones, to be officially recognised.
While it is immensely important that we have a national stadium, we must also be of an understanding that without proper care by all stakeholders, especially those using the facilities the most, athletes and coaches, it will not last very long.
It, therefore, behoves us all to cherish the national stadium as if it belonged to each of us and yet, all of us.
