Officials want BVI to host regional CARIFTA Games
Officials in the local sporting industry now have the ambition to host a staging of the regional CARIFTA Games in the BVI.
This was made known by Minister of Sports Dr Natalio Wheatley who was speaking at Friday’s sitting of the House of Assembly.
He said the idea was brought forth by BVI Athletic Association president, Steve Augustine.
“The president of the BVI Athletic Association challenged me. He said ‘I want you to make it as a goal to host a CARIFTA Games in the BVI’,” Dr Wheatley said.
But the Sports Minister believes the infrastructure in the territory will need to be vastly upgraded before the BVI can make this ambition a reality.
He said: “In order to host a CARIFTA Games in the BVI, we have to have accommodation, we have to have a property that can house all the athletes and all the coaches and the managers and the officials and anyone who wants to travel, the parents and support the team.”
The legislator also believes that once these measures are in place, more economic opportunities will present itself to the territory.
“We need a property like that here in the BVI so we can host conferences, whether it’s the ‘STEP conferences’ or board meetings, cause we know ‘economic substance’ is on the way and we have to have facilities for these companies when they come to the BVI,” Dr Wheatley said.
His statements follow the BVI’s 2019 CARIFTA Games team completing the regional competition with seven medals — the most the territory has ever won at a single staging.
That medal count includes three silvers, three bronze, and the territory’s first ever gold.
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that’s where propect reef comes in
Our leaders (including ministers) must be visionaries. This is indeed an excellent venture to mark the VIP contribution to the development of sports in the territory. I embrace such vision, capacity building and property development to make such vision possible since the current facility at Road Town is obsolete.
Accordingly, a new venue/location which can comfortably accommodate 5,000 – 10,000 persons must be identified and developed for that purpose.
The BVI Stadium… A VIP initiative and project. Make this your legacy and contribution to the development of sports in the BVI Dr. Natalio Wheatley.
Linking with the Tourism Minister vision, Sports tourism must be embraced. Therefore, a few five star hotels will serve the territory well. Redevelopment of the Prospect Reef facility including another two world class facility located on Tortola, Virgin Gorda or another sister isle, will definitely contribute to the 1000 jobs and open our local people’s eye to real economic growth and development in the BVI.
We need hotels . We can’t host no major events at all.
Undoubtedly, hosting the CARIFTA games is an ambitious and noteworthy goal that the BVI must work towards. Dr. Hon Natalio Sowande Uhuru” Wheatley, MEC, is on point with his assessment: “In order to host a CARIFTA Games in the BVI, we have to have accommodation, we have to have a property that can house all the athletes and all the coaches and the managers and the officials and anyone who wants to travel, the parents and support the team.”
No disrespect intended but Dr Wheatley barely got a scaled down VG carnival handled is a CARIFTA games you want him to host? Very Ambitious Steve!
But it’s a great idea though!