By Stephan Sookram
THE National Sport Commission is embarking on a bold move to ensure that the progress of National Athletes remain on their radar, in an attempt to help the development of juniors into top senior sportsmen and women.The NSC, according to the Director of Sport (DoS) Christopher Jones is in the setting up stages of developing a national database of athletes.
“The essential idea behind the database is to pool all our national athletes into one database of which the National Sport Commission will keep a tab on those activities and their progress in whatever region they exist,” said Jones.
He contended that the reason for this is the obvious trends in athletes in the far flung regions who persons see probably twice yearly and do not often times hear of.
These athletes, the DoS noted are those that the NSC is intent on keeping its eyes on to ensure that they are afforded the same opportunities that those in central locations are privy to.
The benefits of the database, Jones noted is multifaceted with effects into other sectors.
“Of course, we want to have a collaborative effort with the ministries of health because god forbid, one of these athletes run into some medical issue, there must be a special protocol arrangement that is had with the Ministry of Health that will take care of those needs,” adumbrated the Director.
Primarily, the DoS indicated that athletes entered into this database will be tracked and trained with the 2020 summer Olympics in mind, according to Jones.
The submission for t the equipment, which totals approximately US $3 M, is already with the Ministry of Finance and is expected to be included in the 2016 national budget.
The first set of information that will be entered in the database will be taken from the recently concluded MoE/GTU National Schools Cycling, Swimming and Track and Field Championships which concluded last week