AS promised, the VOICE continues where it left off last week Thursday 30th August 2018 to present to you, our loyal readers, Part 3, re Consultant Don Lockerbie’s presentation or Master Plan, as it is called with the media as the government of Saint Lucia look to remedy or improve the many dilapidated sports facilities on the island.
Saint Lucia sure punches well below its weight when it comes to sports and after 39 years of Independence from Great Britian; Saint Lucia have participated at six Olympics Games (Atlanta 1996 – Rio Jenerio 2016) our best showing was a 6th place finish by World Rank High Jumper Levern Spencer.
To put Saint Lucia’s historic performance in context, for the last 20 years Levern Spencer has won as many medals on her own as an individual as putting the rest of the many sporting disciplines together. Certainly this calls for a public debate; agreed, granted, 2018 is not over yet and there is quite a bit of sporting activities to take place.
After three major wins so far in 2018, hopes are high for Spencer as she will be representing the Americas at the IAAF Continental Cup in Ostrava, Czech Republic from Saturday 8-9 September and to make it even more interesting she is the only female athlete from the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).
By all indications the government of the day knowing of the many individual performances by Saint Lucia sportsmen and sportswomen under trying circumstances is now looking to put its house in order to ensure the various districts/towns get a state of the art sporting facility that they deserve.
This is what Don Lockerbie had to say, “In the north, we are looking to develop the Saint Lucia sports academy which will be a middle secondary school for elite athletes or athletes who look to become elite in the future, and eventually it has the promise of being a boarding school. Sports academies are all over the world; professional teams have their own where they place students in the school and you wake up together in the morning, have breakfast together, working out, going to school, working out a second time, having dinner, going to do your homework together, in a study hall environment and maybe a film at night regarding your sport to really understand it”.
The Saint Lucia Football Association has endorsed this school and we look forward working very closely with them and putting youth into this school, more than likely, in 2019.
The Gros Islet Secondary school has been selected as this world class sports academy, we brought in a consultant with world class education experience as well as sports academy experience. We will also be upgrading sporting facilities at the Gros Islet Secondary School. That’s phase two.
If you did not hear your constituency mentioned or named it is because we can do four or five venues over an 18 month period and we will continue with the next four or five. On the radar, we have just informed you about phase two what we call shovel ready projects; these facilities are almost ready to go and begin construction. Study ready project, and what I mean by study ready, they still need more detail “Master Planning”, public scrutiny and town hall meetings for us to figure what we do next, let’s face it.
What do we do with the George Odlum Stadium? Effectively it’s been condemned, when the hospital moves, what do we do with the GOS? We are not ready to get that answer yet, we are just studying it. The Daren Sammy Cricket Ground is really part of what I have been calling the Beausejour Sports District; when I was CEO of the ICC Cricket World Cup it was the BCG, and now it is named after Sammy’s fantastic cricket career and the BCG named after him, I still believe we are still looking at a Beausejour Sports District, there is an indoor facility there. If I had my way we would air-condition it and make it a more multi-sport/event, Tennis is already there and they have some idea for further venues and growth. Obviously the DSCG needs some work and upgrade; the last time I was involved was the 2007 World Cup; it was beautifully managed for the World Cup semifinal venue.
There is other land available and we are looking potentially, on the radar, to build a running track and artificial football field on the outskirts of the DSCG. We are also looking to potentially develop a swim centre/a public swim complex, and you will then have in that region football, athletics, cricket, tennis, swimming and indoor sports space so that what we will also do is to take the current Gros Islet playing field and leave it exclusively for cricket, with a court above the cricket ground next to the Gros Islet Primary School.
Other venues, we are looking at seriously are the Mindoo Phillip Park, Marchand Ground, the Sab, the Multipurpose Sports Complex; we want to provide some assistance to the Boxing Association and the venue at Vigie, and as we go throughout the rest of the country on both coasts, from Anse la Raye, Canaries, Bexon, Choiseul and Laborie.
The VOICE newspaper of Saturday 8th September will present Part 4 (What is in the Master Plan for the Daher Mall in Bois D’Orange according to Don Lockerbie)
