School sports resume for the first time since March 2020

The first day of the first inter-school sports event since the COVID-19 pandemic halted sports back in March 2020, is in the books. That sports event is the 2021 Bahamas Scholastic Athletic Association (BSAA) Track and Field Championships, currently underway at the original Thomas A. Robinson Track and Field Stadium. Day two of the event is today.

The meet is the first high school sports meet known to be held in The Bahamas since the Bahamas National High School Track and Field Championships were canceled in March 2020 because of the arrival of COVID-19 in the country.

Genesis Academy is in the lead after the first day of competition with 433 points. Sitting behind Genesis is the defending champion, Teleos Christian School, with 323 points. Rounding out the top three positions is Akepran International Academy with 175 points.

BSAA Secretary Emmerick Taylor is grateful for the coaches for coming together to request permission to host meets and he is also grateful to the Competent Authority for granting them permission to host the meet.

“We are happy that the coaches came together in December and we organized ourselves. We decided to write the Competent Authority to let him know what we will put in place in terms of getting our kids out and getting them active safely. We were making sure that these kids have something to do. We are excited that we were the first to actually go ahead and get something organized for our kids,” Taylor said. “Basically, the kids were happy to get back on the track. They were excited to get out of the class and out of their homes to come do something on the sporting front. The competition was good and exciting. Everyone ran extremely well. We were ahead of schedule so it was a good day.”

The 100 meters (m), 400m and 1500m races for boys and girls, under-7 to under-20, were held yesterday. In the field events, there was action in the long jump pit and the shot put circle.

Genesis’ Symillian La-Roda won the under-20 boys 100m dash. No digital time was available. Teleos’ Tafeiri Strachan was second followed by Noble Prep’s Chavez Ellis in third.

On the girls side, Clemisha Eneas from Noble Prep sprinted her way to first place in the under-20 girls 100m dash. Greenville Prep’s Peteronique Davis was second and Akephran’s Ramona McLerron placed third.

Eneas also placed first in the long jump. Akepran’s duo of Natalia Strachan and Ashlee Neymour placed second and third respectively.

Genesis finished first and second in the under-15 girls 1500m with Tyler Ndlovu and Eva Russell taking the top two spots. Finishing third was Teleos’ Jazmine Bonaz.

This is a new set-up for sports organizers as they now have to put in place COVID-19 protocols in hosting events.

“It was extremely hard to put all the protocols in place. We had to tell some of the kids that they could not come because of the protocols. We also had to tell the parents that they could not come. It was extremely hard to organize these schools. Some of the schools did not show up because they were not sure everything would have worked out the way it did,” Taylor stated.

As for today, Taylor said he expects to see the athletes compete hard and he expects the best school to win. Today, the 50m, 200m, 800m, 4x100m, 4x200m and the 4x400m races will be held.

The post School sports resume for the first time since March 2020 appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.

source https://thenassauguardian.com/school-sports-resume-for-the-first-time-since-march-2020/