By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

WITH the countdown for the World Athletics Relays under 100 days, preparations have kicked into high gear to ensure a seamless fourth hosting of the event in May.

Earlier this week, officials of World Athletics, the Local Organising Committee (LOC) and athletics officials had a preparation meeting to discuss the operations and new initiatives to be carried out ahead of May 4-5.

The World Athletics contingent conducted a customary site visit as well at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium to determine its progress.

Fan Engagement

Drumeco Archer, CEO of the World Relays, gave insight on the planning process and mounting excitement surrounding the star-studded event.

“This week is a very important week for us. It is a week where not only some of our best technocrats on the local front are here but we are meeting very aggressively from morning to night with our counterparts from World Athletics. “It is a very exciting meeting because I think it brings to bare our talent base because I think that in many of these sessions, we are actually leading the charge, defining and innovating.

“What you should expect is the fusion of sport and entertainment, it gives the world an opportunity to see a cultural expression that I think most countries have never really properly achieved.

“We are excited about it, we are not only looking at the event itself, this is not just a track and field event,

it is an event that will really look at fan engagement quite differently,” Archer said.

In terms of innovation, the World Relays has included some new components for athletes, spectators and school students in their planning.

At the Bahamas’ fourth hosting of the World Relays, a priority will be placed on fan engagement starting with the entertainment aspect.

Spectators will have the opportunity to watch the events to take place from the infield for the first time.

The school students will also be included in the engagement.

“Our mandate from a fan engagement but also athletic engagement standpoint is to ensure that schools touch and feel this event, that schools are a part of the event. We are gonna be looking at an aggressive adoption programme where kids are gonna be integrally involved in the entertainment and the fun aspects of this event. There will be no school left behind,” the CEO said.

Event organisers will also personalise t-shirts for schools to purchase shirts of different colours.

Repairs Update

Repairs at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium have been ongoing since November 1 of last year. In its current state, the national facility is missing the roof on the Eastern Grandstand. Following the site visit by executive members, Archer is confident that they will be ready for May 4-5.

“We will be ready beginning May 4 to unveil the curtain of this event. We are not the technocrats, we rely upon the experts not just here in The Bahamas but throughout the world. We are on track and we will have a brand new track that will be the prototype of the Paris Olympic Games so it will be the first opportunity for the world to touch and feel the new technology of a new surface and the stadium will be ready for the games. We will be welcoming the world and we will not be embarrassed. The Chinese construction company and People’s Republic of China will not be embarrassed,” he said.

Sports Tourism

The World Relays will serve as a qualifier for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. The event will consist of five events, inclusive of the men and women’s 4x100 metres, 4x400m and mixed relays.

The 2024 edition is expected to attract spectators from all over the world and top athletes vying for a chance to make it to Paris.

Dr Daniel Johnson, chairman of the World Relays, said this sporting event will play a major role with regards to tourism and they both mesh really well.

“The purpose of this investment for us as a country, as a big investment with big returns, is that you have to bring it home.

“We are now talking about the business of sports and in the sporting business you can see that tourism and sports go easily hand in hand.

“Actually, the largest event around the world and the largest business in the world is not tourism, it is sports and entertainment and it is recession proof. So for us this year on May 3, 4 and 5 you will see The Bahamas welcome the world, not couple people, everybody in the world will be watching this event,” Johnson said.

As preparations continue for the next three months, event organisers are in search of 1,500 volunteers for the World Relays. The Bahamas hosted the World Relays in 2014, 2015 and 2017.