BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – ATHLETES in the twin-island Federation have a very packed developmental programme, as the St. Kitts-Nevis Amateur Athletic Association (SKNAAA) has outlined its intentions for the sport of track and field for 2013.
In an interview with SKNVibes, Public Relation Officer for the SKNAAA Evris Huggins disclosed some of the targets, meets and intentions of the Association.
“We have issued the 2012 athletic calendar, which is very compacted. We will be hosting some 17 development meets and five major championships for the year.
Huggins said that the National Youth and Junior Championship will be held on March 3, TDC Interschool Championship from March 22 to 24 and RAMS Primary School Championship would be from April 5 to 7, while the OECS Invitational Championship would be held on June 9 and the National Invitational and Club Championships are slated for June 16.
“So you have those five major championships, coupled with the development meets and World Athletics Day which is on May 11. Then you have the Independence 10k Run and Road Relays which will be held later in the year.”
He also pointed out some of their objectives from a non-track perspective.
“From a non-track perspective, one of the things in which we want to continue to do is to empower our sports clubs to help them to refine their constitution; to ensure that there is a lot more accountability that is flowing in the clubs; and to understand the protocol and reporting process from the association to the club and from the club to the athlete; and to provide as much support to the coaching fraternity.”
He went on to explain how the coaches have developed themselves in recent times, alluding to the recent formation of a Coaches Association.
“They have elected a new executive back in June. They are trying to tighten up on the constitution and had all their members reregistered, and they will be able to establish the correct policies and protocols for athletes switching coaches or athletes switching clubs, etc.”
Huggins also stated that, for this year, the SKNAAA intends to target grassroots athletes.
“So one of the things you are going to see and one of the objectives of the Association in 2013 would be to strengthen the policies, and we would want to start it at a grassroots level. We want to be able to maintain our position with the academies. We already started the youth academy for the under-15s. We started some work with the junior development squad and we want to continue on that in the next few months. It is not tweaked the way we like it as yet because of the pending issue with the Silver Jubilee Stadium with the resurfacing of the track. So we had to hold our plans and prospects for that particular project.”
He continued: “The other non-track objective that we have, is that we want to educate a lot more of our National Development Squads. We want to include into our curriculum the non-track aspect of it to teach them or to let them understand the seriousness of what it is to sign a contract.
“We want to educate them on food and nutrition. We want to educate them on anti-doping, the stuff you are supposed to eat and the stuff you are not supposed to eat. To empower them to question any coach or anybody who wants them to put certain things in their body that is foreign to them, and also how to handle interviews, respond to the media and also teach the decorum.”
Huggins further stated that 2012 had been one of the best years for athletics in the Federation and the Association is expecting to build on that for this year.
“Well, it is no secret that 2012 has been one of our best years, if not the best year we have had in athletics. For the first time we had four athletes qualifying ‘A’ standard for a single event. Those are good problems we would like to have. You can’t just earmark one person to be the sole qualifier in a 100 meter event, you now have a pool of talented people who are very likely to attain an ‘A’ qualifying standard in an event.
“So, my outlook for 2013 is even greater. The Association remains optimistic because it is no secret whatever we are doing with the grassroots is working. We have seen the record number breaking of patrons and athletes participating at the development meets. This is something we always wanted to have.”
