BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE 16th Annual IAAF World Athletics Day will be celebrated on Sunday (May 15) at the Silver Jubilee Stadium from 2:00 p.m., and the goal for this year’s edition is to firmly establish an important link among the youths, sports and environmental conservation.
According to a press release, recommendation from the IAAF Sustainable Development Commission encourages strongly that member federations implement the IAAF Green Project in association with the World Athletics Day in order to help build youth awareness on issues concerning sustainable development and environment protection.
These awareness activities include tree planting and invitation for athletes to participate in the protection of the environment at training and competition sites, as well as the cooperation of local organisations specialised in ecological matters to assist in promoting sport and the environment.
“Five trees will be planted by our youths at different locations at the stadium in keeping with the recommendations by the IAAF Sustainable Development Commission through the IAAF Green Project and as outlined by the said international sporting body. This specific activity is geared towards the protection of the environment,” said the Public Relations Officer of the St. Kitts & Nevis Amateur Athletics Association, Evris Huggins.
Huggins said the planting of the trees were encouraged last year and the SKNAAA decided to do that at the stadium to enhance the ambience.
He said the main objective of the World Athletics Day celebration is to make Track and Field the most popular sport in the world.
He said that there would be the regular Track and Field events, including races, throws and jumps.
“The IAAF World Athletics Day will focus on an age group of children from clubs who were born in 1994-1995 (16-17), which will be the same as the World Youth Championships later this year in France,” Huggins said.
He said there would also be exhibition races for athletes between the ages of seven and12 as well as senior athletes.
The admission for Sunday’s event is EC$5 and is geared at helping to defray costs for team St. Kitts to compete at the Leeward Islands Youth Championship scheduled for May 21-22 in Anguilla.
Huggins is encouraging the public to come out and support the grassroots of Track and Field. He is also reminding sports enthusiasts that a combined total of 48 records were broken at the recently completed Inter-School and Rams Primary School Championships; 29 and 19 records respectively.
“This is just a testament that our youth development squad, our youth programme or junior programme is working. And we just want to encourage everyone to come on out and support the athletes this weekend as this is a testing ground for the Leeward Island Youth Championships, the World Youth Championships and the Commonwealth Youth Championships later this year,” he said.
