Developments in Athletics
Team Athletics St Vincent and the Grenadines (TASVG) has been involved in the systematic development of the sport in the past year. The process is a long term one that requires firm commitment from all of the stakeholders.
The Strategic Plan developed by TASVG has placed particular emphasis on making athletics the leading participatory sport for individuals in the nations schools. This is consistent with the Strategic Plans of the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) and of the North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Area Association, the continental arm of the parent body for the sport.
The implementation of Strategic Plans is never an easy task. This is all the more so when the environment within which one is called upon to engage in the implementation process is bereft of a sports culture. Coaches Development
TASVG has long since been identifying and utilizing opportunities for the training and certification of individuals with the requisite interest in all aspects of the sport.
No genuine development in athletics can take place without coaches who are competent. To this end TASVG has, over the years facilitated a number of IAAF Coaches Education Certification System (CECS) Courses that takes coaches through the level #1 phase and from which, those who excel, qualify for the CECS level #2, normally held as a regional course.
Gideon Labban excelled at the level #1 and topped the regional coaches in the level #2 Sprints, Relays and Hurdles. His excellence and competence saw him elevated to the status of an IAAF CECS Level #1 Instructor.
Woodrow Williams has attained level #2 Certification in the Jumps, Shanet Johnson, level #2 Distance Running and Godfrey Harry, level #2 Sprints, Relays and Hurdles.
The number of level #2 coaches in St Vincent and the Grenadines is inadequate. There is no level #2 coach in the Throws area, nor in Walking.
Several level #1 and level #2 coaches have been sent abroad on courses of varying types. Gideon Labban, Woodrow Williams, Godfrey Harry, Sally-Ann Butler and Rawlson Morgan have all attended and successfully completed three-month courses at the Hungarian Institute of Physical Education and Sport, Budapest, Hungary.
Rawlson Morgan, Cornel Cambridge and Woodrow Williams have, earlier this year, benefited from short courses in Sprints, Distance Running and Jumps respectively.
Straws in the wind
On Friday 2nd December, TASVG commenced an IAAF CECS level 1, at Arnos Vale. Initially the IAAF insisted on 24 participants. TASVG got 38 applications, many from teachers, all of whom were accepted. The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports approved leave for all teachers who had applied. At the commencement of the course on Friday last, one 19 of the applicants turned up, a rather embarrassing yet very instructive reality.