Photo: Natalliah Whyte comforts Saqukine Cameron after winning gold in the Girls 200m finals at the ISSA Grace Kennedy Boys and Girls Championships. Cameron who was one of the favourites for the event finished 3rd.
Sports has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language that they can understand. Sports can create hope where once there was only despair.
It is believed that the Inter-Secondary School Sports Association (ISSA) comprised mainly of High school principals, should use sports to enhance the well-being of high school athletes as individuals, members of their communities and society.
Their chief function is to organize and implement different sporting events to foster the holistic development of our young student athletes, while promoting peace, mutual respect and understanding among athletes and supporters alike.
It is expected that with these sporting event, including the annual Boys and Girls Track and Field Championships, that athletes will compete without strife while representing their different high schools.
In their quest for success and glory, emotions will rise and sometimes take away from the excellent performances that these athletes will display on the track or in the field. And it somehow seems that these sporting events are slowly becoming a breeding ground for disunity and disagreements.
Our young athletes are seemly losing sight of the real reason behind these sporting events. Who is to be blamed is the question?.
Throughout the track and field season, there were, on more than one occasion, signs of some unsporting behavior during competition. The gun shooting/gun finger signs, cut throat signs, verbal battles within marshalling and warm up areas, booing and taunting, among other unacceptable signs.
During the final day of the recent Boys and Girls Championships, when the moments of battle intensified, it was observed during one of the relay races, some unfortunate happenings (shoving and baton throwing) which could have been far worse if the two parties were using that race to decide the winner of the championship.
While some fans in the stands were shocked at what they witnessed, other supporters of one of the parties involved, including student athletes, were all up in arms, expressing among themselves what they would have done to the other parties if …
It must be said that it is commendable to see athletes hugging each other, shaking hands, even attending to injured competitors during the moments of competition, knowing very well that it can be done and should be done in the spirit of unity and harmony.
Some of these junior athletes have been and others will be, selected for future national sporting teams and it has to start somewhere when it comes on to the fact that for teams to do well, they have to be able to work together as a unit and not be divided amongst themselves.
“Sport they say has two faces: a source of violence and a source of peace. Hence the reason why the JCF has launched their ‘Peace for Champs’ initiative, which may need to go far beyond just Champs but right across all ISSA run sporting events, in a bid to promote and enforce the spirit of good sportsmanship amongst our student athletes.
Coaches, support staff, parents and principals need to increase the drive to get student athletes to understand that building enemies is not the objective of high school sporting events.
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