By KEILE CAMPBELL

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

YOUTH, Sport and Culture Minister Mario Bowleg said the World Relays over the weekend vindicated the Davis administration’s decision to renew The Bahamas’ commitment to the event.

He said officials told him the two-day event was sold out, even though there were some empty seats in the Thomas A Robinson stadium on Saturday. Sunday’s event was better attended.

“The logistics was perfect,” Mr Bowleg said, adding that every race started on time. During longer races, fans were treated to live Junkanoo music.

“Economically, the exposure we have on the world stage, I would never step back on wanting this event to return,” Mr Bowleg said. “It’s reaping the reward, the return of investment. We had 52 countries here and 1500 athletes.That doesn’t include coaches. The two villages were practically full out so that tells me it’s doing it’s job.”

The event was not without some controversy for local residents, however.

Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations (BAAA) apologised for an “unfortunate human error” of a track team being labeled “Haiti-Bahamas All-Star Team”, which caused “grave national concerns for both countries”, according to a statement released by the BAAA.

According to the statement, a race was held at a pre-game show of the World Athletic Relays to integrate young children into the competition. It was “intended to inspire athletes as young as seven up to under 20”, with invitations extended to clubs, high schools and athletes with disabilities as well as international competition who participated in the recent CARIFTA Games.

After Team Haiti could not attend, the BAAA accepted a request from one of the participating clubs to “make up a team to represent Haiti”, setting the conditions that the athletes

be of Haitian nationality and the team be sanctioned by the Haitian Athletic Federation to be represented under the Haitian flag. A failure to satisfy the all-Haitian member condition would have resulted in the team labeled “Unattatched Team”.

Images published on Facebook of a jumbotron displaying one of the teams as “Haiti-Bahamas All-Star Team” evoked some backlash from Bahamians.

In the statement, the BAAA clarified that it did not agree to a team being named “Haiti-Bahamas All-Star Team” because “no such country exists”.

The BAAA explained that the meet management personnel and the broadcasting team responsible for team data entry were not instructed regarding labelling, adding that the matter was “immediately corrected”.

The statement said the “unfortunate turn of events” was not the result of mishandling by the government or any minister.

BAAA president Drumeco Archer told The Tribune that while the pre-game show was received well, some Bahamians had issues with the team’s naming.

“It was just the naming, not the event. The event was well praised, and I think the pre-game show was as well-received as the actual event, so let’s celebrate the young kids,” Mr Archer said.