Race Weekend, January 16-19, that includes the Sunshine Insurance Marathon Bahamas activities, kicks off a sports year that is expected to be extraordinary. Into its fifth year, the Marathon Bahamas event is positioned significantly among the high profile sports/social events.
Marathon Bahamas is a sports-tourism bonanza and it is a fitting happening to lead off the marquee events connected to our national sports industry. Three running events, the marathon, the half-marathon and the Susan G. Komen 5K Race, are most synonymous with the affair that continues to build and at some point could evolve into a full week of fun, excitement, competition and history.
Other slated local-based events, regional and international competitions have members of the sports fraternity anticipating the continuance of top-level performances by present elite athletes and the emergence of new stars.
Depending upon the progress of the work being done at the new Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium, the Chris Brown Bahamas Invitational (CBBI) is still scheduled for around mid-April. The CBBI event, last year, was quite successful and organizers are hoping for the 2014 version to be even better. The yearly junior track and field classic of the Caribbean, the CARIFTA Games, is on tap for Martinique, April 18-21.
Then, there is the much talked about inaugural International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) World Relay Championships, scheduled for the very same Thomas A. Robinson stadium, May 24-25. A monumental amount of work at the facility is a big challenge but because of the government's huge financial investment that will easily go into double figures in the millions of dollars, the time frame will likely be adhered to.
The Bahamas Olympic Committee (BOC) has a large agenda. The Commonwealth Games are scheduled for July 23-August 3 in Scotland; the first Pan American Sports Festival will take place in Mexico over July and August; the Youth Olympic Games will be hosted in Nanjing, China, August 16-28 and Vera Cruz, Mexico, is the location for the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games, November 16-30.
The Pan Am Festival is a new product of the Americas. Born out of the need for countries in the jurisdiction of the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) to elevate training and competition for their athletes, the event is revolutionary.
Over the months of July and August, a number of training camps throughout Mexico City and other communities within the Mexican Republic, will be open to athletes from countries of the Americas. Likewise, clinics will be staged in multiple venues for coaches and trainers. Most importantly, actual competition will take place in over 20 individual sports and as a bonus, official results could qualify athletes for the Toronto, Canada 2015 Pan American Games and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
So indeed, 2014 looms large for the Bahamian sports industry. It is Marathon Bahamas that will get 2014 started in a big way.
o To respond to this column, kindly contact Fred Sturrup at sturrup1504@gmail.com.
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