On June 3rd and 4th, the BAAA hosted the Bahamas Youth Nationals. The Youth Nationals focus on athletes between the ages of seven and fifteen. From this Nationals, Team Bahamas will be selected to compete at the 2016 Caribbean Union of Teachers Youth Championships.

This year's championship is being hosted by the British Virgin Islands.
     After a very tough two days of competition, The Bahamas' best in the 7 year old to fifteen year old comprised the forty member Team Bahamas.

At the conclusion of that championship, Bahamas Athletics sat down for a Q&A with the young and talented Acting President of the B.U.T, Mr. Zane Lightbourn who now has the responsibility for Bahamas C.U.T Team Bahamas.

Team Bahamas is scheduled to travel on July 12th with the Games starting on July 14th and 15th.

1. BA: This is your first time overseeing a BUT team/ Team Bahamas compete at the 2016 Caribbean Union of Teachers (CUT) Games being held in Tortola, the Virgin Islands; how important is this to you to make sure this actually happens?

ZL: “As Acting President and for my first time in leadership role for something like this to happen, I am very excited. I have expressed the importance of this to my officers, our organization, the BAAA’s and also GSSSA that this must be commensurate with the profession that we represent and also with our country that we are so proud of.

We expecting that the level of performance, participation, involvement and all of the activities are top notch and up to international standards. Even though it is a CUT event, it is still an international event and we expect nothing than the highest international standards be represented especially by us, who I think are the gem of the Caribbean and the envy of all of the other regions.”

2. BA: After observing the trials for the past two days, what were your expectations coming into the first day?

ZL:“I came into it expecting to see some good races which did happen, some good activities and jumps. All the activities here are exciting events where the parents are involved with all the screaming, with the excitement of the activities and the stern and fierce competition. What I didn’t fully expect which I was surprised and in a good way, I didn’t realize how ‘tight nit’ this was ran at this level in terms of the technical aspect of it.

The meet was ran as if it was like running the Olympics; all of the importance of time and the requirements of the athletes such as where they go, how they are marshalled on and off the field; even though I was not expecting it to be taken lightly, it was just the seriousness of it.

I am very impressed with the BAAA’s and BACO (Bahamas Association of Certified Officials) making this event what it was which was a tremendous success.”

3. BA: Let us go from the first event to the last event, what was going through your head at the time of the races? For instance, what did you see when all the action got started from when the gun went off?

ZL:“Once all the action got started, I just felt the excitement; it took me back to being in high school and sitting there with Mrs. Carey and other officials in the stands, it took me back to being in primary school and how the rules had changed when during house sports, your parents would run the track with you but it is not allowed now because it is a professional event so you have to hold your excitement. You hear the parents screaming from the stands and the level of expression from their voice is projected straight across the stadium because they want their athletes to hear their specific voice so that brought a level of excitement.

Even down to the finish line, the fight in these kids at this age when they ran the technical aspect of them performing like they are being taught to run as professional athletes. All the breathing and strides and everything else, it’s not just a race. I appreciated it seeing that. Down to the final event today, we saw a race where a few athletes came down the stretch of the 400m and unfortunately we had a kid who fell somewhere around the 100m line and the medics was right there; they ran to him and others also went to his rescue to make sure that he was ok. He got up after that and walked off the field. It was good to see all of the moving parts come together and showed a real professional meet.

If kids start to appreciate the professionalism at this level, then when they go oversees to represent our country, it would be no shock for them that the standards are set in the same way, very high and they are expected to perform at that level and show that level of professionalism.

I think it is a reflection of what we want sports to be in this country and a reflection of the event itself which is a Caribbean Union of Teachers event and I stress the word “teachers.” Therefore, everything we do at this stage is a teaching and learning experience. Not only for our kids but also for ourselves.

We are always looking for ways to improve and things that may have not gone as good as we want it during every event and so I think that this the real idea behind success because success is never supposed to be a definition about where we are satisfied about where we at. Success is definitely a journey.

I have all confidence that this team under the leadership of Mrs. Carey and the BAAA’s it’s been excellent! Their cooperation and communication and everything that they put in place; I can sit down, my job is easy. I just want to find out where we are, where we are going and where my input is needed. I try to offer the best but they have their expertise and I am very impressed.

That alone tells me our showing is going to be one of excellence and a reflection of what our country is about.”

4. BA: As in the Olympics, the Bahamas Olympics Committee has the responsibility of sending off the Olympic team but in this regard, the BUT sends this team off, how important is it if you return as president that moving forward this continues especially as we missed last year and this is one of those teams that we have to make sure that we participate every year?

ZL: “One of my mandates and I’ve been embarking on this and pushing my executives in the direction that things have to happen. We can reflect on all of the mistakes in the past and things that didn’t happen but we have to learn from them; in learning from them, you have to ensure that after your time, the visions and the objective of the organization go on.

That is definitely my vision, to make sure that these things happen but I can’t just preach this; I would have to put the things that would cause that to happen in place.

We mandated it in a way that our organization must prepare for these games. We are prepared to bid for the upcoming games to make up for the time that we could not host; to make sure that the BAAA’s which is a nationally recognized organization responsible for our professional sports in our country are at the helm of it.

Even if the BUT begins to lag in its responsibility of it and if God forbid that I am not the president or my time has come when I move on, we want to make sure that there is an organization that we all are accountable to these kids and their parents who work hard and look forward to these events.

It was heartbreaking to hear some of the parents expressing how their kids felt not being able to go to the CTU Games this year.

We are trying to get to that mark and I think we are reaching that mark where the government, the BAAA’S and the BUT are involved in making sure that this happens so that no one person or small group of persons can take this opportunity away from the kids, our country and our citizens.”