CANOC’s C’bean Games due next year

THE inaugural Caribbean Games, a multi-sport event sanctioned by the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees (CANOC), will be hosted by the Guadeloupe from June 30-July 4, next year, some 12 years after it was initially scheduled to debut in TT.

The announcement was made by the CANOC executive, on Monday, at Olympic House, Port of Spain, following a board meeting.

CANOC intends to have the Under-23 event held every four years, with disciplines like athletics, aquatics and netball at its core. It was originally schedule to be held for the first time in 2009 in TT but was cancelled because of the swine flu pandemic.

Brian Lewis, who is president of both the TT Olympic Committee and CANOC, said surveys indicated a considerable demand for the staging of the event, especially by its primary target age group (23 and under).

“We did a survey on social media to test the waters and 73 per cent of the respondents said that staging the Caribbean Games was important,” Lewis said.

The five-day competition, however, now forms part of a hectic year for young national athletes, as the 2021 Junior Pan American Games precedes it, from June 2-13, while the 2021 Commonwealth Youth Games, hosted by TT, will begin less than a month after, from August 1-10.

“Although we suffered a setback and huge disappointment (in 2009), CANOC never gave up the dream, the mission and the vision, of why we believe that as a Caribbean people, that we should have our own games.

CANOC secretary general Keith Joseph described the format as “an opportunity for the youngsters to stake a claim, make their name, and afford the rest of the Caribbean to see some of the better athletes on the horizon.”

Lewis continued, “We needed to find a way to differentiate the Caribbean Games from the clutter (of the) international calendar.” Lewis said there is also a growing desire to have the Caribbean’s best athletes perform in front of their home fans, as opposed to competing outside the region. “Why can’t we have a games?” he asked.

An important feature of CANOC’s mandate is the inclusion of netball among its sports.

“CANOC is leading the way in supporting the efforts of netball within the Olympic movement,” said Joseph. “Part of the Caribbean Games’ mandate is that netball (be) one of the compulsory sports. Guadeloupe does not play netball, but in the spirit of being (a) member of Canoc, they have taken a project to introduce netball and to have it on the programme.

CANOC has received support from the Caribbean Community (Caricom).