Augustine to re-contest for presidency of Athletics Association

President of the BVI Athletic Association (BVIAA) Steve Augustine has confirmed he will re-contest for the post of president during the BVIAA’s general election scheduled for this year.

Augustine said in an interview with BVI News that despite the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the territory, there is no foreseeable reason why elections should not be held.

“Constitutionally, it’s mandated that we hold elections this year and we more than certainly will. Within the executive body, we have already started to speak about the proposed date and we will inform our track family quite shortly as to when the election date will be,” he said.

“Whether the restrictions are lifted or if there are still in place, we started to speak about innovative measures that we can use to ensure that our upcoming election process is reachable for all and is fair and that we can continue to adhere to the constitution that is set out, which is our governing document, Augustine added.

Advancement of BVI Athletics during tenure

The Athletics Association President, who was recently appointed to the Governance Commission of the North America, Central American & Caribbean Athletics Association (NACAC), said his administration has been able to elevate athletics in the territory since taking office in 2016.

One such milestone includes successfully getting major sponsorship from Puma to outfit BVI athletics.

“The truth is, there’s no one out there in the track family that can’t say that BVI athletics haven’t continued to move by leaps and bounds during our tenure, and I said our tenure as in we are a team so it definitely is not a one-man show,” Augustine stated.

“We have not been distracted. We have continued to remain in contact with our constituents and our track family. Our athletes are doing well, we have had the track repaired and we have the stadium being fixed. We were able to get some funding from an international body to help with those repairs and our athletes are continuing to show up locally, regionally, and internationally on the podium,” he explained.

Many unforeseeable obstacles during tenue

Despite the many accomplishments achieved, Augustine said some things he initially wanted to attain during his tenure were affected by the many disasters which impacted the territory.

“The truth is, during our tenure, we were hit with the floods, we were hit with two hurricanes, we were hit with the passing of our late Chief Coach Dag Samuels, we were hit with COVID-19 – the lockdowns and the curfews – and it’s been quite a bit that has affected our ability to do so much more,” the BVIAA boss explained.

“But I would stand proud and say besides everything that has affected or created hurdles for us in achieving some of those initiatives we were surely set out to accomplish, we have continued to move by leaps and bounds,” he added.