It is October and we are into the pre-season component of the athletes’ year. For us here in St Vincent and the Grenadines we are into the road racing season.

On Sunday 4 October, we host the annual Round D Town Road Relay. This is one of the biggest road racing events on our calendar and attracts athletes from our primary, secondary, and tertiary educational institutions as well as senior athletes, male and female. As is the norm, each leg begins and ends at the crossing at the First Caribbean International Bank and RBTT. The relay begins at 2.00pm instead of the usual 3.00pm. This is to ensure the adequate separation of the races in keeping with health protocols.

Because all requisite COVID-19 protocols for road running events will be in effect, there will be a change-over zone that spans the width of the crossing. Once the incoming athlete of a team gets into that zone, the outgoing runner can take off. There will be no change of batons or pom poms or touching between the athletes.

The protocols also necessitate that only athletes for the pending leg can be under the tent in the FCIB car park, while awaiting instructions from race officials to move into the change-over zone.

All other pertinent arrangements have been made in respect of transportation for participants, Red Cross for all medical matters and the Police for traffic management.

The major NACAC/OECS Chatoyer International Endurance 10K Road Race is set for 29 November. Because of the latest CARICOM decision in respect of the regional Travel Bubble, we can expect athletes from the neighbouring islands to participate.

TASVG continues to market the Chatoyer 10K as a sport tourism event. It is already billed as “The World’s Most Challenging 10K Road Race”, given its unique array of hills on the leeward side of St Vincent.

Finally, the Diamond Sport Facility, which will house the nation’s first all-synthetic track with a football field inside, is nearing completion. TASVG has provided regular pictorial updates on the transformation of the area in Diamond since the project started. This can be found on our website.