2008 – Make or break year for Vincentian sports

As we begin a new year we perhaps need to recognise the importance of having all hands on deck if we are to make the significant breakthroughs for which we have set up our athletes in the previous years. 2008 will be critical for many of our sporting disciplines if only because several of our athletes are on the threshold of great things.

Beijing Olympics

For 2008 the singly largest sporting spectacle in the world will take place – the Summer Olympic Games. Beijing has already broken several records in terms of expenditures for the preparation of what some suggest might at once be the most expensive, the most expansive, the most financially successful, the most attended, the most watched and the most controversial edition of the Summer Olympics in sporting history.

St Vincent and the Grenadines has an excellent opportunity of reaching where we were in 1996 when Eswort Coombs of Chateaubelair made it to the 400m semi finals at the Centennial Olympics in Atlanta. Since then we have not had an athlete in any sport go beyond the first round at the Games. This year Kineke Alexander stands a good chance of making it to the semi finals and possibly to the finals.

The Team Athletics St Vincent and the Grenadines Project 2012 strives for the attainment of a finalist position at the Games and a possible medal. The athlete most likely to attain this is Kineke. At 22 she would however face a major challenge. Given her focus this year on Outdoor competitions only she should be in much better shape for the Games.

Adonson Shallow, Casnel Bushay and Gerard Lewis all now appear to have a very good chance of making the established standards for the Beijing Olympics.