BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – IN an attempt to focus the Federation’s young athletes on the many opportunities available to them through track and field, the St. Kitts-Nevis Amateur Athletics Association (SKNAAA) is laying the ground work for an ambitious new outreach programme.
The as yet untitled programme would be centered on having some of the nation’s most successful track and field athletes, such as Olympic qualifier and World Champion Kim Collins, explain the hard work they endured to achieve their success.
“We are going to be trying to have some outreach programmes using Kim Collins, Tiandra Ponteen, Virgil Hodge and other athletes. We want to take them to the schools and hear their real stories, nothing fabricated,” SKNAAA Public Relations Officer Evris Huggins said in a recent interview with SKNVibes.
Huggins stated that the idea came after years of the association struggling to engender the focus and discipline necessary for an athlete to reach the elite levels in track and field. Rather than waiting for the occasional athlete to have these qualities naturally, the association hopes that the new outreach programme would plant them early in the nation’s youth.
“We find that there is a gap between the elementary and high school levels. The ethics are different. There is a high level of interest at the elementary level…but the interest on the high school level is generally a drop off.
“Being able to impact one person’s life and being able to see how they worked hard and achieved so much would allow the youths to see that they could do the same,” Huggins said.
Though many of the athletes continue to be busy with either their running careers or their personal lives, the PRO said that many have expressed a strong interest in the new programme.
“All of the athletes I have approached have said they are excited for it. Virgil Hodge in particular has been in communication almost on a daily basis and I’m trying to get this off the ground before she has to leave for the European circuit.”
Collins, Ponteen and Whitley Williams are among those who are being approached for the project.
It is hoped that the outreach would be implemented for this year’s track and field season as school sports days are beginning to be held around both islands, but if it did not come to fruition this year, Huggins said it would almost be guaranteed for the 2011 season.
He added that the programme goes hand-in-hand with the SKNAAA’s desire to increasingly professionalize the standard of the Federation’s athletes and fully harvest the abundant talent available in the sporting youth.
