@balance | August 1, 2012 at 5:31 AM…”BUT AREN’T WE …IGNORING THE FACT THAT THERE HAS NEVER BEEN AND WILL NEVER BE AN ABUNDANCE OF QUALITY ATHLETIC TALENT IN BARBADOS.”

Balance, balance, balance, Barbados has the capacity to produce just as many as just as good quality athletes as any other country, but our athletes don’t get the practical, emotional, financial, academic and athletic support which is needed.

It seems to me that sports in Barbados is forever about the officials and the Boards of Control and NEVER, NEVER about the real producers, that is the young people aged 13 to 30 who have the capacity to deliver. Maybe there ought to be a rule that nobody over age 30 can sit on the board of any sporting association.

Then we could get rid of the elderly, obese seat warmers.

Balance, balance, balance, Barbados has the capacity to produce just as many as just as good quality athletes as any other country, but our athletes don’t get the practical, emotional, financial, academic and athletic support which is needed.”
Do not agree. The pool of natural talent is somewhat limited in the athletic arena compared to cricket and the money could be best channelled in trying to restore cricket to its place of pride and industry in our national psyche.Whatever little improvement we make in athletics, it stands to reason that those ahead of us would further improve as well and we would forever be playing catch up. yes, prepari for athletics takes money, but it calls for natural talent too. if you see some of the conditions those cubans train under, you would get a sense of what i mean.
“It seems to me that sports in Barbados is forever about the officials and the Boards of Control and NEVER, NEVER about the real producers, that is the young people aged 13 to 30 who have the capacity to deliver. Maybe there ought to be a rule that nobody over age 30 can sit on the board of any sporting association”
I take your point. i stopped short in an earlier post of calling for the disbandment of the BCA and the BOA. They like the two political parties have outlived their usefulness.

Don’t pray for it otherwise there will be nothing left soon to boast about. Even on its dying bed, Cricket remains the only sport which has placed Barbados on the international map and still remains a financial window of opportunity for those play the game.

Another emotional argument. Most of the money earned from cricket is located to a relative few. How many crickets from the Caribbean can we say earn a 24/7 living? Did anyone read the Nation a couple weeks ago to see that the BCA is not attracting any sponsorship? If ever there was an indicator which points to the declining interest in cricket there it is. Cricket will have to morph to the 20/20 variety if it is to survive.

How many crickets from the Caribbean can we say earn a 24/7 living?

except perhaps of jamaica, moreso than from all the other sports combined.

Leadership is about vision, invigorating our sports program to excite and create opportunities for many young people will not happen through cricket, a dinosaur sport with mainly commonwealth appeal.

i wonder if Freida Nicholls is part of the Olympic official team. saw her in today’s nation posing with one of the ceremonial guards. seems she has taken on the role of reporter too.

@ Simple Simon | August 2, 2012 at 11:33 PM |
“So yes sport naturally discriminates against old people.”

So too does wisdom against young people, young yam!

How many blacks ever won medals in the swimming or gymnastics?

There are sports where older and more experienced people compete successfully.
And I am sure there are still parts of you that when stimulated would feel “refreshed” and “rejuvenated” despite your ‘sell-by-date’ has gone like mine with a few drinks still left in the bottle (LOL!!).

@ David | August 3, 2012 at 6:39 AM |
“Does anyone know how the lottery works? Are their financials made public? ”

This is a SOS to “Amused”: Please help by shining your Legal light on this area of darkness.
You have good track record with the vagrant horses and the AX CoI comedy show.
Let us know about the legislation that governs Lotteries? Is it the Gaming and Betting Act?

Who the hell is the guy Stout? Are you f-ing kidding me? Bajans deseve their poor showing at the olympics. His photo speaks volumes. Moreover, the comments here are for the most part nothing by pseudo intelectual bs diatribe about age discrimination. Demonstrating once again that bajans have no frigging clue. Salute to Bolt and Jamaica!!! If Jamaica would just get their solicial and political act together they would be an incredible force to recoconned with.

do u expect anything different from Mr. Steve Stoute, look how he handpicked the simmons guy to be SG of BOA. That guy has always been dumb and stands for nothing, except to support Mr. Stoute over the years like a retriever. The Barbados Olympic Assocaition needs new blood and this incest must stop for us to make any headways in sports. What has become of the sports blue print that consulation was held on, although I thought that consultation was a waste of time. We need doers in sports and not talkers, until then we will always be at square one.

I support the nationalisation of the lottery, instead of these miilionaires milking barbadians, i would prefer to be milked by a lottery that will invest in the arts, sports and cultural industries. Its time that a decsion be made in this regard. In England, i am told that profits from the lottery are use for such persons.

It pains me that a delegation larger than the athletes always leave these shores, and in some instances travel first class, like how the Director of sports use to travel. Do we exspect to amke headways in sports when we cant even export our road tennis so we can have something to control; I heard some big talk about how we are the headquaters for the world road tennis assocaiation.What have we achieved since so much money was spent overseas promoting this sport. We have a lot of square pegs about the place.
Why have the other caribbean countries surged ahead of us at the international level in all ares of sports? We have failed miseraby and there seems to be no hope.

Nationalisation of the lottery? That would be sport, imagine how long we would wait for financial statements, imagine the auditor general report and imagine how much money would go walkies.

@jake ”It is time that whites and their apparatchik field soldiers in the Barbadian government and society as a whole be severely disciplined”

————–

Of course it would not be long before some jackass would trace the sporting failure back to an issue of race.

Strange, Rihanna is the or one of the most successful pop artists the last five years, in AMURCA wid white people.

Did that stop her? NO.

Stop running to to de white people dsi and dat all the time. Lot of foolishness.

No, no. Bajans too crab in a barrel, that is the underlying problem.

Do Steve Stout and Brugger Johnson OWN the Olympic franchise in Barbados? If not who does …?

The Olympio Lotteries was supposed to be turned over to the sporting institutions five years after it started … So said the five owners at the time, one being Oscar Jordan. This lottery has since been combined with its competitor then owned by the Turf Club to form one BIG lottery with the Turf Club owning half. This was all done with the well wishes of Owen Arthur who along with the present administration allowed the Turf Club get away with a TWENTY MILLION debt to the Inland Revenue people. Maybe the horses are benefiting but judging from the lack in response of overseas participation in the Club’s marque racing events it seems that the development of sport of any kind is still to be demonstrated …!

F*cking incompetent kunt!!!!

I would agree strongly that accountability needs to be brought as to spending and devleopment for athletes and a REAL plan brought to the table.

Unfortunately, this ;ack of accountability is across ALL spectrums of Barbados, political and government especially.

As BAF says, I dont think it has anything to do with race, more of a guard on protecting the incompetents, the wasteful and ;lazy, with no result required or expected.

But, you are all right, what IS the ratio of athletes to administrator travel, especially as an athlete with a qualifying time was left at home?

@Jake..who seems to be caught in a time warp…the eighteenth century is long gone and present day realities in Barbados do not jell with your views…most local whites exist on the margin and wield no power whatsoever…like ninety eight percent of our population, they live from pay day to pay day…as a tiny minority, local whites..as is the case with minorities all over the world, get “severely disciplined” all the time…if a few surface from the demoralizing pressure of minority status and contribute nationally, then so be it…they are making their contribution here and not elsewhere.
One of the problems with sports in Barbados is too few people chasing too many sports…the potential talent pool gets increasingly fractured…hopefully, some talent scout in athletics will spot the next Usain Bolt here and whisk them up north to hone their skills. Check the background of most modern day athletes..even from the “highly developed world” and see where they train and learn…most of them go to the USA..the Brits, Russians etc..the Chinese send their people to Australia…all credit to Jamaica who have built on a solid foundation going back some fifty odd years…we don’t have the mass of population nor the traditions of Jamaica in athletics but one day a Kirani James type will be scouted right here in Barbados…..and note this….. in other sporting endeavours we have made an international mark….right now, we have not one, but four world class surfers in that growing sport.

And see who is the architect of one of the precursors of the internet search engines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archie_search_engine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Emtage

A Barbadian.

@ Karl Watson | August 10, 2012 at 12:08 PM |

Don’t you think it would be more informative if you had mentioned the names of those Barbadians who have made such outstanding and valuable contributions to modern civilization?
Most Barbadians do not have the slightest clue of the great loyal sons and daughters who have made distinctive and excellent contributions outside of Bim. Even some of those that made significant contributions locally are not mentioned.
So Karl, let us ‘big up’ these and at least mention their names.

@Millerthe anununaki…point well taken..Dr Leacock (St Lucy) in the early nineteenth century demonstrated that intra species blood transfusion was feasible, Dr Benjamin Bynoe (Christ Church) accompanied Charles Darwin for four years on the Beagle, did a lot of collecting and field analysis for Darwin and helped with Darwin’s theory of evolution, Gibbes Walker Jordan (Speightstown, St Peter) revised some of Newton’s findings and his academic work was published in every European language, Dr Bourne (St Michael) did revolutionary work in pharmacology in Canada and the USA…Dr Harry Bayley (of Bayley’s clinic on the Bayland) did early work in the UK on penicillin, resisted the siren call of fame and fortune abroad, came home where he did sterling work, including identifying leptospirosis…today, one name from the QEH roster Mr Gill the neurosurgeon…entirely capable of working any where in the world or overseas, Paul Steinbok another neurosurgeon, who at thirteen was in the Modern Sixth at Harrison College with myself as he was biding time to enter the Science Sixth.
If the detailed research was done to identify those Barbadians who have made or continue to make globally significant contributions to world civilization, we as a nation would be astonished that so few of us, from what is no bigger than a market town in the UK, USA or Canada, have made and continue to make our mark at world level…even in the space industry at NASA, a Barbadian, a Mr Hutchinson played a significant role. So I agree..we need to “big up” our top achievers, past and present, so that those who follow can truly say…there are no limitations imposed by size…if we have the will and the drive, we too can succeed.

@BAFBFP…what’s wrong with giving back a little??? I was educated in this island at public expense…is civic duty so old fashioned??….I’ve never thought of myself as a public relations consultant, but then one of my father’s favourite sayings comes back to haunt me…”if we could only see ourselves as others see us!”

No. NO! The issue has become one of demoting the relevance of being Barbadian in a competitive world market space over those who have been adopted by all and sundry.

Watson of the people you name are any black? I didnt think so. What of the fellow Prof Headley, a scientist who invented water heaters or something?

Regarding Tituba, the debate over her ethnicity still rages….was she African or Amerindian?? From time to time, one can tease out from the surviving evidence, examples of skilled Africans/Afro descendants…for example, in a cartouche of the Mayo map, two Africans are shown operating the waywiser for Mayo which presupposes some knowledge of surveying/mathematics…I came across a reference to an African man who in the early eighteenth century was employed by the white merchants of Bridgetown to teach their children mathematics and languages. The first successful and largely uncelebrated black merchant of Bridgetown was Joseph Rachel…when I do tours of Bridgetown and mention him, no one seems to have heard of him, though everyone is aware of Rachel Pringle Polgreen. The surname Polgreen is an interesting one, associated with Barbados….I suspect though I have yet to uncover the evidence, that the black composer/violinist of the early nineteenth century Polgreen Bridgetower who was at some time associated with Beethoven, is credited with introducing some elements of Afro Barbadian music to Beethoven (primarily tuk band rhythms) and who played for all the crowned heads of Europe, had some Barbadian connection. Frankly, the evidence for black achievers in the seventeenth and eighteenth century is slim…when we come on to the second half of the nineteenth century and twentieth century, the story changes…just one example…a survey of outstanding black academics/educators of USA institutions would reveal a surprising number of Barbadians who have played and continue to play a major role there…@ David…Mr Gill the neurosurgeon I used as an example of modern day medical achievers is non white and there are many other black doctors working today at the QEH, who could easily find a job elsewhere, if they so desired…my reason for pointing such individuals out was not to shift from the topic of sports administration, but to provide a different view to that expressed by Jake re the alleged poor quality of the staff of the QEH….and yes BAFBFP, medicine does bring in foreign exchange for Barbados…many people from neighbouring islands opt to do surgery here which they pay for..in vitro fertilization is another example of a foreign exchange earner.

Come on Stoute its high time you resign go home watch tv rest yourself. You have been an abysmal failure be a man move on let someone else have a go at improving Barbados athletic fortunes.

If you dont leave now after the London disaster we know for sure you are around simply to ride the gravy train not to take track and field to the next level. Dont let the door hit you on the way out.

Who read Steve Stoute in the Big Interview today? Some ass covering if ever there is a case. What he and like minded don’t understand is that throwing money at sports is part of it. It must be done as part of trying to unfold a national strategy. Does he think the Olympic society invest in sports in Jamaica without consulting intimately with stakeholders to ensure the resources is received in the areas they want? A simple thing like the suggestion Barney Lynch made today i.e. to make regional broadcast available free to air across the region to show the centre of excellence that is track and field. The same for T&T.