Two of Barbados’ most prominent businessmen, Sir Charles Williams, and his younger brother Ralph “Bizzy” Williams have lavished more praise on Formula 3 hero Zane Maloney after his historic win at the Monte Carlo Circuit in France on Sunday.
Beckles was born in Barbados but immigrated to London.[1] In the mid-1960s, he won several British regional titles before winning the 1969 and 1970 NABBA Mr. Britain titles. In 1971, Beckles joined the IFBB, earning the overall at the IFBB “Mr. Universe.”
Beckles was one of the most active participants in bodybuilding history, having been in over 100 contests. In 1982, at the age of 52, he won the Night of Champions competition in New York.
Amazing Amber strikes gold
Brilliant!
That’s how Barbados Cycling Union (BCU) president Charles Lynch has described the gold medal-winning performance of 21-year-old Amber Joseph at the Pan American Track Cycling Championships in Peru over the weekend.
Joseph, who represented Barbados, won the women’s 40-lap scratch race ahead of Mexico’s Victoria Velasco and Alexi Costa of Trinidad and Tobago.
Joseph clocked 15 minutes to finish strong and win the 10-kilometre race of 40 laps.
“I am extremely happy. It’s a huge boost for the sport and should pave the way for Government to repair the track at the National Stadium or construct one,” said a beaming Lynch.
Here, Joseph (centre) on the medal podium in Lima, flanked by Mexico’s silver medallist Victoria Velasco Fuentes and Alexi
Costa of Trinidad and Tobago, who took bronze. (MK)
capture the bronze medal
De Grasse, whose father is the late Barbadian journalist and educator Alex Waithe, finished the race in 9.89 seconds, while Italy’s Lamont Marcell Jacobs took the gold in 9.80.
Lack of facilities ‘a hurdle’
By Anmar Goodridge-Boyce anmargoodridge-boyce@nationnews.com
The lack of sporting facilities on the island is proving to be a major hurdle, hindering Barbados’ participation on the global stage.
President of the Barbados Olympic Association (BOA), Sandra Osborne, says the ongoing issue is just one of many factors contributing to the small number of athletes qualifying for the world’s biggest sports competitions.
“You don’t produce the best athletes without facilities, and that is an area in which we have had a bit of a challenge in. I think that until we can get a good handle on that so that they are enough athletes coming through the pipelines who have access to good facilities and good coaching, you will always have small numbers,” Osborne told Weekend Sport yesterday during a telephone interview.
Her comments came in the wake of the recently concluded Tokyo 2020 Olympics, where Barbados was represented by eight competitors: two swimmers and six track athletes.
The BOA head said it would be ideal to have greater numbers and more sporting disciplines at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
‘Very close’
“We came very close in surfing, boxing, judo and shooting. I think it would be a tremendous achievement if we were to have athletes from a wider range of disciplines or sports qualify. I look forward to that. In the past we had sports other than swimming and athletics, and I would certainly like us to get back to that so we can show some depth,” Osborne said.
Track and field has had the largest representation with 62 competitors in 13 appearances by Barbados at Olympic Games, going back to 1968 in Mexico City.
“Our greatest success has been athletics – there is no question about it and that is always going to be at the core part of the team. The point is there are other athletes out there who have done extremely well and just missed the qualifying target or the opportunity to gain a universality place.”
Semi-finalists
Quarter-milers Jonathan Jones and Sada Williams, along with 400-metre hurdler Tia-Adana Belle, reached the semi-final rounds of their events at the Tokyo 2020 Games, which Osborne said is a major improvement from Rio 2016.
“We are overall satisfied with the performance of our team. I think when you look at it as a whole, comparing to Rio, we have improved. I think we are moving in the right direction. I am not going to get into the details of the individual performances but, in general terms, from the BOA perspective, we are happy. I think one has to be realistic about expectations. We were very happy with what we saw out there,” she said.
Osborne also reiterated
that the BOA is committed to continue funding the island’s best athletes.
“We make a considerable investment in athletes and at the appropriate time we will give more information on it,” she said.
Last year, the BOA implemented a new funding model due to COVID-19 with a five-tier system to provide financial aid to 90 athletes amid the global pandemic. The categories included elite, high-performing, emerging, developing, and team athletes.
The association also instituted an athlete insurance policy to the tune of $ 50 000 to offset the cost of sports-related injuries.
A seven-member allocations and funding commission, chaired by first vice-president Cameron Burke, was also introduced in an effort to make recommendations to the board on providing funding support to athletes directly, and through their respective national federations.
Ah, that was some game! Roach and Seales add the required 17 for the last wicket, and seal the match
Here’s the legend of Roach: “Just stay positive – that’s me! I was just trying to take on every ball as it came. By far [the most important innings so far]. I was just trying to pick the gaps and run hard. Just believing and backing myself. [Advice to Seales?] Just protect the stumps. The biggest threat is the straight ball. He did it very well. He is a star for the future. [His five wickets today] speaks wonders about our cricket. All the best to him, and I wish him a great career!”
IS BARBADOS’ road tennis heading to the 2033 Olympics?
In 2016, the International Olympic Committee approved five new sports for the 2020 Olympics. The additions, which included skateboarding, brought 474 more athletes to the Tokyo Summer Games.
Skateboarding began as “sidewalk surfing” in California in the 1950s. Surfers wanted something to do when the tides and waves were low and flat. These innovators made skateboards from wooden boxes and roller skate wheels and surfed on sidewalks. Seventy-two years later, sidewalk surfing is part of the Olympics, as skateboarding – surfing on skate parks, not waves (a skate park is a set of indoor or outdoor plywood or concrete ramps that mimic the curves and slopes of waves).
Barbados’ road tennis is older than skateboarding and with a similar informal beginning. In the 1930s, a group of Barbadians wanted to play lawn tennis, but it was an expensive sport. Like the surfers, they made rackets and nets with wood, sought worn lawn tennis balls and turned roads into tennis courts.
Organisation of the game and expectations are changing. In a 2020 media story, Dale Clarke, chief executive officer of the Professional Tennis Association, shared a global vision of road tennis as both a sport and an industry. Among other things, he said: “The progress has been rapid and satisfying because not only in Barbados has the level risen but the support has expanded beyond our shores. People in the Philippines play road tennis, and there are countries in Europe, Central America where people are playing.” Speaking to the future changes he said: “We have to be creative and try to form new alliances and get new sponsors on board.”
So are the new alliances to which Clarke spoke sufficient? What about a brand name? Can it survive as a competitive community sport alone? Or should it become an integrated sport for the rich and poor, and the black, white and others?
Skateboarding’s blueprint is public knowledge. It reads like history and storybook and a business or entertainment report. Listen to parts of the story: 1. “Larry Stevenson invented skateboarding. Rodney Mullen added new maneouvres, styles, and designs. Tony Hawk, born May 12, 1968, is one of the early professional skaters, the first skater to land a 900.
2. “In the late 1970s and early 1980s, skateboarders were: punk rockers; had a lingo and music; according to some, lived a rebellious life; performed tricks on stages; and used the skateboard as transportation. This combination of competition, culture, and subculture transformed the informal activity into the industry. That recreational art form, reportedly in 2009 had a market value estimated as $4.8 billion, and 11.08 million active skateboarders in the world.”
Barbados now has its California road tennis story. PZ Road Tennis Store offers eight racket sizes for kids-adults and road tennis apparel. The female Barbadian road tennis believer has formed an alliance with educators. Road tennis is part of a physical education fitness curriculum; and a STEM-based (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) project. Road tennis is teaching students mathematics and science.
Without question, the potential of road tennis as an activity exists. But will Barbadians hold fast to their creation and continue to develop it on their own as a competition rather than borrow ideas and learn from the development of other informal sports. The 2030 Olympics await road tennis. A roadshow of road tennis is overdue: tuk band rhythms, stilt dancers and drummers for half-time shows.
Road tennis in Barbados needs promotions: festivals, tournaments between the teams from the parks and the villages. Students should be required to research and write the history of the sport for school credit. Lest Barbados forgets: Trinidad failed to convert steel pan into an industry. It remained just a carnival competitive treasure for too long. Other countries now make and sell electric and amplified steel pans. Barbados: “Hard ears yuh won’t hear, own way yuh gine feel.” Meanwhile, the 2033 Olympics await banjo tennis or zipp tennis.
Historic race for Sada today
by ANMAR GOODRIDGE-BOYCE anmargoodridge-boyce@nationnews.com
SADA WILLIAMS will create local track and field history today by becoming the first Barbadian woman to compete in the finals of a Diamond League athletics meet.
The 23-year-old quarter-miler, who is having the season of her life, sits on the cusp of what would be a remarkable achievement as she heads into the women’s 400-metre final in Zurich, Switzerland, with 17 points, a personal best of 50.11 seconds and the greatest opportunity for her maiden international victory in the one-lap event.
If victorious, Williams will bag US$30 000 in cash prize, a trophy and a wild card for the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, next year.
A second place finish guarantees US$12 000 while the third place runner gets US$7 000.
The former Coleridge & Parry and Harrison College student will enter the starting blocks in Lane 6 at 1:04 p.m. (Barbados time) against a star-studded field of competitors.
It includes Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Paulino Marileidy who will start as the favourite having won the last two 400-metre races on the Diamond League circuit.
Williams’ training partner, Stephenie Ann McPherson, and fellow Jamaican Candice Mcleod along with Dutch Lieke Klaver and Quanera Hayes are also in the lineup at the Letzigrund Stadium.
“I want to improve and run the 49 before the season is over. [That] keeps me going. I know I will get there,” Williams said in a recent interview NATION SPORT.
“I definitely need to work on the last 100 metres of my race, for sure, because I realised that is the slowest part of my race. But I know the more I run, the better I will get. Honestly, I think I just need to swing my arms a little bit more,” she added.
A win will not be a walk in the park for Williams, however, following her impressive semifinal display at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, she has showed consistency and determination clocking 50.70 in Lausanne and 50.30 in Paris two weeks ago.
On this remarkable run, Williams, who is coached by legendary Jamaican Stephen Francis, also added another chapter to her magical storybook by beating American legend and Olympic champion Allyson Felix.
Williams continued her form from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics one month ago after shattering Lorna Forde’s 43-year-old national record and narrowly missed out on the women’s 400-metre final after finishing third in the semi-final. The time, which is the fastest ever to not make the final, erased the 51.04 Forde set back in 1978. Sada, the holder of both the women’s 200-metre and 400-metre Barbados records, was ninth overall in the race.
The women’s 100-metre will once again headline the culmination of the
Diamond League with double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah in action despite the absence of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who has opted out.
Thompson-Herah ran a blistering 10.54 in Eugene last month to set tongues wagging, leaving fans optimistic about seeing Florence Griffith Joyner’s world record of 10.49 seconds broken.
Marie-Josee Ta Lou, and British duo Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita are also on the start list.
Among the men, Canada’s Olympic 200-metre champion Andre de Grasse and American 100 metres silver medallist Fred Kerley are participating.
SADA TAKES THIRD
Bajan shines in Diamond League 400 metres final
By Anmar Goodridge-Boyce
anmargoodridge-boyce @nationnews.com
Sada Williams elevated Barbados to new heights with a stunning thirdplace finish yesterday in the final of the women’s 400 metres at the Wanda Diamond League athletics meet in Zurich, Switzerland.
The 23-year-old created history as the first Barbadian woman to compete in the prestigious final but then capped it off with a podium finish, clocking 50.24 seconds in front of a packed crowd at the Letzigrund Stadium.
In the first track event on the schedule, Quanera Hayes of the United States stormed to victory in 49.88 seconds ahead of Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Marileidy Paulino (49.96) of the Dominican Republic.
Hayes led from start to finish but was heavily challenged by Jamaican Stephenie Ann McPherson coming off the bend into the home straight.
However, Williams running in Lane 6, kicked into an extra gear, showing strength and endurance to produce a remarkable late surge to pip Mcpherson, fourth-place finisher at the Tokyo Olympics, on the line and win a cash prize of US$7 000.
During a post-race interview with the Weekend Nation, Williams said she hopes her third place inspires the island’s junior athletes to strive for excellence.
“I hope this sets an example for the younger athletes coming up and show that they can do anything even though we are from a little small country,” she said.
“This means a lot to me, especially seeing that this is my first Diamond League final. It only shows what is going to happen next year and in years going forward,” Williams added.
When asked about her race plan she said: “Today [Yesterday] I felt more nervous than usual but I honestly just wanted to run and win or get a personal best. I am a little bit disappointed but I am trying to see the positive of it. My third 100 wasn’t as fast as it should have been; otherwise, I would have run a faster time.”
The achievement prompted massive celebrations from Barbadians on the island and on social media, some of whom wore national colours.
It’s now the fourth time in as many races that Williams surpassed the 51.35 seconds required to qualify for the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, next year.
The top 48 competitors will meet in the United States, and Williams is currently ranked tenth in the world with the qualifying period running from June 27, 2021, to
midnight June 26, 2022.
Williams, a former Coleridge & Parry and Harrison College student, also defeated Jamaican Candice McLeod, who was fifth in the final in Tokyo, Natalia Kaczmarek, Kieke Klaver and Kaylin Whitney in a starstudded field of competitors.
It sums up an impressive season for Williams who finished second in Paris and Lausanne two weeks ago.
She added to a remarkable run of form from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, where she established a new national record of 50.11 seconds in the semifinals.
That time, which was the fastest ever to not make the final, erased the 51.04 set by Lorna Forde in 1978. Williams, the holder of the 200 and 400 metres records, was ninth overall in the race.
In the marquee event at the Diamond League, Jamaica’s Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah was once again in the winner’s circle, storming to victory in 10.65 seconds in the 100 metres while Fred Kerley of the United States won the men’s event in 9.87 seconds, ahead of Andre de Grasse.
@Hants
Importantly he has a supportive family with the financial means.
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@ David,
Two of Barbados’ most prominent businessmen, Sir Charles Williams, and his younger brother Ralph “Bizzy” Williams have lavished more praise on Formula 3 hero Zane Maloney after his historic win at the Monte Carlo Circuit in France on Sunday.
https://www.nationnews.com/2021/05/26/williams-brothers-laud-zane/
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Bossy is a racing enthusiast as you know.
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Indy 500 starting soon.
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The future looks good.
Young Barbadian golfer, Emily Odwin, won her second consecutive golf tournament on the Hurricane Junior Golf Tour on Memorial Day weekend
https://barbadosgolfassociation.com/emily-odwin-wins-back-to-back-golf-tournaments-in-the-usa/
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We wish her well Hants, let us hope she qualifies to play the tour on the 8 June.
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June 10th… Test Cricket.
https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/south-africa-tour-of-west-indies-2021-1263140
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Will West Indies get 2 to 1 ? Stressful to watch.
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Talent drain ?
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/warwickshire-close-to-signing-che-simmons-17-year-old-dubbed-new-jofra-archer-1266631
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Albert Beckles
Beckles was born in Barbados but immigrated to London.[1] In the mid-1960s, he won several British regional titles before winning the 1969 and 1970 NABBA Mr. Britain titles. In 1971, Beckles joined the IFBB, earning the overall at the IFBB “Mr. Universe.”
Beckles was one of the most active participants in bodybuilding history, having been in over 100 contests. In 1982, at the age of 52, he won the Night of Champions competition in New York.
This man should be celebrated in Barbados.
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Source: Nation
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Bajan Keveh Nicholls a rising star jockey at Woodbine.
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https://www.nationnews.com/2021/07/22/update-2-non-playing-wi-team-member-tests-positive-covid-19/
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Condolences to the family and friends of Rawle Brancker.
” Brancker played cricket for Barbados and toured England in 1966 with the West Indies. He was a left arm batsman/bowler.”
https://www.nationnews.com/2021/07/27/rawle-brancker-passes-away-83/
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https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/07/30/barbados-franchise-rebrands-as-the-royals/
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https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/07/31/remembering-the-versatile-rawle-brancker/
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Crystal Emmanuel is a Canadian sprinter who specialises in the 200 metres.
Her mother Rosalind Emmanuel competed internationally for Barbados in athletics in the 1980s.
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capture the bronze medal
De Grasse, whose father is the late Barbadian journalist and educator Alex Waithe, finished the race in 9.89 seconds, while Italy’s Lamont Marcell Jacobs took the gold in 9.80.
https://www.nationnews.com/2021/08/01/andre-de-grasse-wins-100-metre-bronze-medal/
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Crystal Emmanuel just won heat 200 meters.
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Canadian De Grasse,wins 200 meters. Trinis and Bajans celebrating.
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Well done.
Sada shatters 43-year record at Olympics
https://www.nationnews.com/2021/08/04/sada-shatters-43-year-record-olympics/
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She ran a great race. She has talent. We just need to add the finishing.
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I have to watch nonsense on NBC and it affiliates during the day. At night they have track and field spread over 3 or 4 channels.
I am envious of you guys.
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Bajan genes helping produce more gold for Canada.
Canadian Damien Warner wins decathlon gold.
Damien Warner’s father is Kevin Warner, a Black Barbadian.
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https://www.nationnews.com/2021/08/09/sandals-vacations-caribbean-olympians/
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Source: Nation
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https://www.nationnews.com/2021/08/13/double-cycling-gold-barbados/
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West Indies won by 1 wicket
Ah, that was some game! Roach and Seales add the required 17 for the last wicket, and seal the match
Here’s the legend of Roach: “Just stay positive – that’s me! I was just trying to take on every ball as it came. By far [the most important innings so far]. I was just trying to pick the gaps and run hard. Just believing and backing myself. [Advice to Seales?] Just protect the stumps. The biggest threat is the straight ball. He did it very well. He is a star for the future. [His five wickets today] speaks wonders about our cricket. All the best to him, and I wish him a great career!”
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Source: Nation
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Go Sada!
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Women 400 Metres Zurich Diamond League Final 2021
SADA WILLIAMS 3rd. Well done.
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https://www.nationnews.com/2021/09/09/sada-wraps-season-third-place-diamond-league-final/
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Source: Nation
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Bajan star boy Patrick Husbands BSS
” Husbands stars with five wins ”
https://www.nationnews.com/2021/09/14/husbands-stars-five-wins/
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Best wishes to Michael Holding on his retirement, he excelled as a cricketer and his ability in the broadcast booth surpassed his cricketing prowess.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/09/15/west-indies-great-michael-holding-retires-from-commentary/
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Lewis wins in Russia. #100
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