By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WHILE they continue to negotiate the possibility of establishing their home in the Bahamas, the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association is putting the finishing touches on their inaugural NACAC Track and Field Circuit that will begin next year.

In town for a series of meetings that started with a courtesy call on the new Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Mario Bowleg, and ended with the Bahamas Associations of Athletic Association, secretary general Keith Joseph said NACAC is on its way to provide their alternatives in the region to the Grand Prix series held mainly through Europe.

“We have a committee that is headed by Duffy Mahoney of USA Track and Field and it involves a number of individuals who are accustomed to hosting these premier meets or Grand Prix meets, as we call them,” said NACAC’s secretary general Keith Joseph.

“We have put together so far a total of 21 meets for 2022. We are trying to have them in sequence so that athletes from the Caribbean, between March 15 and June 15 every year, would have access to a circuit within the NACAC region that would allow them to be adequately prepared for the international championships.”

With Europe starting to tighten up its grip on the participation of their own competitions where athletes will have to be ranked in order to compete, Mr Joseph said NACAC is stepping up to offer meets where athletes can compete in the region in front of their own people in the rankings and to gain their ranking points.

“What you have right now, for instance at the Diamond League meets, you have to be in the top ranking in the world and those have more points,” Mr Joseph revealed. “But increasingly, if we have more events where ranking points are available, then they can make the same amount of points or more than their European counterparts.”

As they get set to roll out the inaugural series, Joseph said they hope it can sustain itself. Presently, there are six meets on the list in the United States, three in Canada, two in Jamaica, one in the Dominican Republic and one in Costa Rica.

“We have put it on the table. We are hoping that the BAAA would be anxious to have one such meet to be part of the programme going forward,” said Mr Joseph, who, accompanied by NACAC president Mike Sands, was scheduled to meet with the BAAA on Tuesday night.

“And so it’s something that is critically important for us and gives Caribbean people an opportunity and people within the NACAC region will see their own athletes compete more regularly in a period where they are not incumbent by what goes on in Europe because the Diamond League doesn’t start until after June.”

In response to their proposals so far, Mr Sands said the athletes are eager to compete in the series because they would not only be earning points, but they will also be compensated by prize money offered for their participation before they move on to Europe.

Coming off the successful staging of the New Life Invitational in Miramar, Florida, which served as a guideline for the coming series, Mr Joseph said they had the luxury of providing the prize monies to the athletes immediately after the meet and, with their agents, they are convinced that they will be able to attract the top ranked athletes in the region to compete in the series.

He said having already completed their calendar, the agents are now in a better position to prepare their athletes for next year’s schedule of events and the member federations of the governing bodies in their respective countries in the region.

In addition to the NACAC Series, Mr Bowleg said the Bahamas Government, in relaunching its “Sports in Paradise” campaign, is looking at putting in a bid for the hosting of the seventh World Relays scheduled for 2025.

Mr Bowleg said there is still sufficient time for the Bahamas to put in a bid to rehost the World Relays that got started here with the first three editions in 2014, 2015 and 2017 before it was moved to Japan in 2019 for the fourth edition. The fifth edition was held in Chorzow, Poland this year and the sixth is going to Guangzhou, China in 2023.

“I think I have all of the knowledge around me with president Mike Sands, the BAAA and Tim Munnings, so I believe that they should be able to help me to put the proposal together so that we can take it to Cabinet and get our approval to proceed forward to obtain the approval from World Athletics to host the relays,” Mr Bowleg said.

And from the local perspective, Mr Bowleg said the facilities in the Bahamas should be opened up for the use of the Bahamian athletes to train and compete in.

“It’s a disgrace when athletes come home and they have no access to the national stadium to work on their craft,” he said. “I think one thing I want to do is that the availability and the accessibility for them to use these facilities are there.

Mr Bowleg said the development of the sport is incumbent on the governing body of that discipline.

"So meeting with them and having an understanding of how we want to improve the development of sports, not just in New Providence and Grand Bahama, but essentially throughout the Family Islands, we would hope that they would provide this ministry with a platform on their development plan so that we can see how best we can assist them, whether it’s just mentally or physically or financially, to make sure the improvement is made throughout the length and breath of the Bahamas," he added.