By Neto Baptiste
Principal of the TN Kirnon Primary School Denmore Roberts is calling on the authorities to step up and rectify the venue issue faced in Zone 4 ahead of this year’s zonal track and field championships.
According to Roberts, schools are being barred from utilising the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium for zonal track and field competitions, a venue regularly used by the institutions to stage the event. However, with the T20 World Cup set to come to the Caribbean in June, the stadium is set to undergo some repairs.
The principal, however, believes that the hosting of the event at the venue would not significantly impact preparations.
“The schools want the stadium from 10 am to 2 pm for four days and I find that they are unnecessarily putting up a blockage against the schools. The last time we were able to get it, the prime minister’s son was a part of the zone, and running, and so they overruled all of the other people and made it happen,” he said.
Roberts outlined that the area normally used by the schools would not negatively impact any preparations at the venue.
“All the schools need is the bottom western portion of the south stand and the western side of the field. They put some cones go around to run a 400 and an 800 and those are the first two events, so it’s just the outfield and [the Manager Keithroy] Black go on like the world will end up there if people come up there to use the stadium,” he said.
The principal said the event is in danger of being cancelled as checks at the Antigua Recreation Grounds (ARG) revealed inadequacies at the venue.
“Up to now we can’t find a place to have zonal sports so we might have to cancel the one for zone four because we can’t get a location. Friday, I went to the schools league finals [at ARG] and I walked on the [turf] to see if it was okay, and the field is fairly okay but when I called the authorities to see if we could use it, I found out the ARG doesn’t have water so you can’t use the bathrooms in there,” Roberts said.
Observer media reached out to stadium manager, Keithroy Black who refused to comment at the time.
A total of 18 schools compete in Zone 4 sports on an annual basis. This year’s event is slated for February 13-16.
