Caribbean and Commonwealth celebration as The Bahamas awarded VI th Commonwealth Youth Games
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The Bahamas has been awarded the 2017 edition of the Commonwealth Youth Games, it was announced today, aiming to unite 1000 young athletes aged 14-18 in a Caribbean carnival of impactful competition, personal development and new Commonwealth friendships.
The 6th edition of the Commonwealth Youth Games will take place from 19-23 July 2017 in the nation’s capital, Nassau and seven sports are proposed: Aquatics (Swimming), Athletics (Track and Field), Boxing, Cycling (Road), Judo, Rugby Sevens and Tennis. It will be the first time Judo has been presented at a Commonwealth Youth Games.
As part of the Federation’s commitment to partner and support peaceful, sustainable and prosperous Commonwealth communities, it will be the second edition of the Youth Games to be held on a Small Island Developing State, following the hugely successful Samoa 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games in September last year. It will also be the first Commonwealth Games event to be held in the Caribbean for over 50 years, with Commonwealth athletes last participating in the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica.
Speaking after the CGF’s Executive Board meeting in Gibraltar, Commonwealth Games Federation President Louise Martin CBE said: “It gives me the greatest pleasure to announce that the Executive Board of the Commonwealth Games Federation has unanimously voted to award the upcoming edition of the Commonwealth Youth Games to the Bahamas.
The Commonwealth Youth Games are a unique and empowering opportunity to celebrate and engage young people on the level playing field of sport. I congratulate and commend the Bahamas Bid Committee for their passion, commitment and expertise and look forward to helping realise their dream of an impactful and inspiring Games for the Bahamas, the Caribbean and the Commonwealth.”
Almost all events will be held in the same sporting precinct, the Queen Elizabeth Sports Centre, which includes the world-class 15,000-seat Thomas A Robinson stadium, host to the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and Athletics. The sporting action will also reach out to the communities and streets of the island, with the Cycling competition to be held on the streets of New Providence.
With just over 500 days to go to the Opening Ceremony, the Youth Games partners across the Bahamas plan to draw on their experiences successfully coordinating the 2014 and 2015 IAAF World Relay Championships. The island is also a former host of CHOGM (1985) and the most recent Commonwealth Education Ministers Meeting (2015).
Welcoming the announcement, Bahamas Commonwealth Games Association (CGA) Secretary General Romell K. Knowles said: “We jubilantly thank the executives and members of the Commonwealth Games Federation for the confidence placed in our country by the award of the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games to The Bahamas. We also thank the CGA of St. Lucia, who first had the vision to bring the Games to the Caribbean. Additionally, The Bahamas CGA expresses enthusiastic solidarity with our Caribbean brothers and sisters in the regional Commonwealth Games Associations as we will all be hosts to our fellow athletes and officials from across the Commonwealth.
Bermuda’s greatest swimmer finds heartbreak, inspiration in Charlotte
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Roy Burch was a celebrity in Bermuda, a headline-making Olympian featured in roadside advertisements across the picturesque island.
In the pool, no one could catch him. But against the world’s best, Bermuda’s greatest swimmer was outmatched.
“As a Bermudian,” he says, “I’ve always been made to feel small, and I don’t like that.”
So in 2011, he moved to Charlotte to discover how good he could be.
Here, he saw an elite swim club on the rise, Olympic medal-winners to train with and a coach who could push him.
Burch’s plan paid off. By early 2015, he was on track to represent Bermuda in his third Olympics. This time, perhaps, with even a chance to medal.
His newfound speed was the result of hard work, of constantly trying to outdo his teammates – even in warmups. That’s what he was doing in March, dunking basketballs in the Queens University of Charlotte gym before practice. He felt especially strong that day.
Then, he went up for a dunk, his legs buckled and everything changed.
Read: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article53759165.html
