Just days before the start of the IAAF World Relays Bahamas 2014, the Class 1 certification of the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium has finally made its way to The Bahamas, and is in the hands of Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Dr. Daniel Johnson.
It appears to be just a matter of time now. The track is now certified, the accreditation process has started and is ongoing at the Kendal G.L. Isaacs National Gymnasium. Landscaping around both the new and old stadiums is just about completed, and athletes have already begun filing in - all for the biggest sporting event to ever be held in The Bahamas!
The inaugural International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) World Relay Championships is set for this Saturday and Sunday at the new Thomas A. Robinson Stadium.
Even the tickets for the event are just about sold out. At a press briefing yesterday, Managing Director for the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) of the event Lionel Haven said that the western grandstand, gold, silver and bronze packages are already sold out; up to this weekend, on the eastern grandstand, there were just about 1,100 tickets remaining for Saturday and just under 1,000 for Sunday.
"Operations are moving along very well. People will see that there has been a dramatic change in that stadium from the test event a couple weeks ago to the opening of the World Relays on Saturday," said Haven. "We have received the IAAF certification for the track and will be presenting that to the minister today. We wanted this stadium to be the jewel of the Caribbean - something that could host international events, and we were able to accomplish that. We're looking forward to a very, very exciting event," he added.
In addition to the 15,000 seats in the stadium, Minister Johnson said that they have installed some junkanoo bleachers, thereby accounting for an additional 1,000 seats, but those particular seats have already been earmarked. About 800 athletes from 42 countries are coming to these shores for the event. The total amounts to more than 1,000 visitors, factoring in coaches, trainers, officials and IAAF delegates.
"I'm so delighted to be able to witness what is happening this coming weekend," said Bahamian IAAF Council member and 'Golden Girl' Pauline Davis-Thompson. "I never thought that I would have seen this in my lifetime," she added. "Being a part of the IAAF Council put me in a position to agitate for us to get these World Relays. It just seemed to be so fitting for The Bahamas to be the country to host this event, because we are passionate about track and field and we're even more passionate about relays. The Bahamas is known as [a] small country [with] great athletes, so when the IAAF said that they wanted to host these World Relays in the NACAC (North America, Central America and Caribbean) region, there were many big countries which expressed an interest in hosting."
Eventually, The Bahamas was given the bid for the first two years of the World Relays.
"They wanted to solidify it before they move it somewhere else," she said. "They said that the perfect spot to solidify it is The Bahamas based on our history in the sport of track and field and our history in relay running. Lamine Diack (IAAF President) came here in 2002 for CARIFTA, and fell completely in love with The Bahamas. With him buying into it, it was so easy to convince the other members to join in as well. Therefore, I am so proud to be a Bahamian and to be sitting on that council. I just hope that Bahamians could be as proud as I am this weekend. What the LOC has been doing behind the scenes, I call them our unsung heroes. There are Bahamians who are working day and night to ensure the success of this event."
IAAF President Diack, from Senegal, will be making his third official trip to The Bahamas. Davis-Thompson said that most of her fellow council members will be here for the first-of-its-kind athletics event.
"Last year, we hosted the CARIFTA Games, and then after that, we went through a scenario in regard to the certification of the track. It was a concern to us because we wanted to be able to host the best of the best here in The Bahamas," said Minister Johnson yesterday. "The track itself had to meet the highest international standard, and I am pleased to say that we have achieved that. We are now certified as a Class 1 Grade A facility. This is the newest track in the world, and the fastest track on the planet."
The minister said that he wasn't worried at all, despite the late arrival of the Class 1 certification.
"We have been positioning ourselves for Class 1 certification for a while now," he said. "We contracted Mondo to get the work done, and Mondo is the number one track manufacturer in the world. They go through a very detailed process in regard to how it is done. After December had passed, our track was already manufactured and sitting in the factory in Italy. We knew that having Mondo on board, with the credibility of the company, we would have the desired results."
Minister Johnson added that the certification itself came at different levels, and a number of things had to be done to get the facility Class 1 certified.
"When you look at this track, the quality is in the design and the kind of surface that is laid," said the minister. "A lot of other things come with Class 1 certification as well. All of the support features around the track gives you Class 1 certification. There has to be another track nearby that is also 400 meters (m) and is also at a certain level of IAAF certification. Also, there needs to be a third straight away. There are three pieces to this certification, and we met all of them. Accompanying that has to be bathroom facilities, the appropriate medical facilities, the appropriate EMS facilities...the full nine yards. Everything in that complex has to meet a certain standard, and we have met that standard."
The minister said that the security of the stadium in totality was, as expected, very high on their agenda, particularly with the world coming to The Bahamas for this grand event.
"That was also one of the priorities of the certification process," he said. "I think that having more of these events is going to have an impact on our crime situation. For one, young people will have something to inspire them that they can gather in large groups and there will be no incidents, and number two, when people see the economic impact of what this could do for the community, that will have a great effect. The knock on effect of large-scale events, I think will increasingly inform public opinion as to the manner in which we should behave.
"With this event, we won the bid for 2014 and 2015, so we are looking to see what are the dynamics for us to do it again. We're looking at having something every year in this space that may be track related. It justifies our investment going forward," he added. "We ended up around the $10 million figure, but the economic impact is estimated to be around $20-25 million. I think we spent around three to five million dollars for the event itself, and then the infrastructure which we get to keep to use in the future was another $5 million. Bahamians have to figure out how to capitalize on the operational side, and that's where the economic impact comes in. We are making an investment into this, but it's the young Bahamians who have to figure out how to plug into this to have economic impact."
Minister Johnson said that his ministry, on behalf of the government, will present a detailed financial report at the conclusion of the two-day World Relays, but for now, the focus is on the actual event, particularly with the sports power image The Bahamas has projected at world-class athletics events.
"In The Bahamas, we want to show the world that we are truly a sports power," he said. "On any given day, The Bahamas can line up with any country in the world, and we could be in it to win it. We have earned that respect."
On the strength of a strong athletics performance, The Bahamas was the per capita champions of the Olympics in 1996 in Atlanta, 2000 in Sydney and again in 2004 in Athens.
As far as remaining work in and around the stadium is concerned, LOC Managing Director Haven said that just cosmetic work is left to be done.
"That's not something that is going to take an inordinate amount of time," said Haven. "We have a lot of Bahamians employed on this project, and that's a part of the economic impact of this event. We're pretty confident that what needs to be done will be done in time for the event on Saturday and Sunday."
A colorful opening ceremony is set for 4:40 p.m. on Saturday. The junior segment will start at 3:30 p.m. each day, and the World Relays will get underway at 5:30 p.m. each day.
The patron for the event is the country's first minister of sports, Kendal Nottage. 'Golden Girl' Davis-Thompson said that, growing up, she was inspired by him and his coining of the phrase "The Bahamas - el numero uno".
"That stuck with me and carried me throughout my career," said Davis-Thompson. "I want to tell Bahamians to let's show the world a grand Bahamian time. Let's show them the spirit of the Bahamian people. They love our warmth. They love our friendliness, and that is what I'm expecting my fellow Bahamians to display this weekend. What we do this weekend will determine whether or not we are on our way to becoming the number one sports tourism destination in the region," she added.
Whether or not The Bahamas hosts the event again in 2015 remains to be seen, but for now, the focus is on 2014. Two and a half years of planning and preparation is about to come to pay dividends, as the IAAF World Relays Bahamas 2014 is now just four days away.
Get ready Bahamas!
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