Mr. Cardigan Connor
Some seventeen and a half acres of land, a portion of which has already been cleared, is awaiting development and funding to serve as an athletic track in Anguilla.
The Government-owned property is located north of The Quarter main road and the International Omolulu Institute. The hope is that Anguilla would receive some assistance from the UK in view of the contribution that Anguillian athletes like Zharnel Hughes and Shara Proctor are making to Great Britain sports.
The matter came up for comment at a press conference held by the Anguilla Government on Tuesday, October 27. “We are on target in terms of clearing the land for the athletic track,” Mr. Evans McNiel Rogers, Minister of Social Development, told media representatives. “An IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) representative is supposed to visit Anguilla, and we are putting that athletic track in the forefront of the discussions as part of the agenda. If we are producing athletes like Zharnel Hughes and Shara Proctor, and many more to come, we should at least be assisted in having the facilities here to develop our athletes.”
Mr. Rogers is expected to put forward Anguilla’s case to the UK Government’s Sports Ministry when he visits London at the end of November for the Overseas Territories Joint Ministerial Council Conference. He will also be discussing assistance for the territories’ Sports Council he succeeded in placing on the agenda.
“I attended the pre-Joint Ministerial Meeting in June this year, in Bermuda, when I was very successful in getting on the agenda the establishment of an Overseas Territories Sports Council,” Mr. Rogers continued. “The significance of that is that in the United Kingdom the Home Sports Council is well financed in the sense that [it receives] well over 500 million pounds – with over 300 million from the UK Lottery, the UK Government and a number of private individuals. We here in Anguilla and the other Overseas Territories do not have access to any of that money. This Joint Ministerial Meeting must make a difference in terms of our sports contribution to UK’s or Great Britain’s sports.
“What we have before us are two of our athletes here in Anguilla – Zharnel and Shara – who are actually Great Britain’s record holders in their particular events. To add to that, Ms. Proctor is a UK medallist and we have an [upcoming] athlete, Mauriel Carty of West End as well. The support of the Overseas Territories was overwhelming in the sense that two of the seven medals that Great Britain got [including one the Turks and Caicos Islands’ athlete, Delano Williams won], were medals from the Overseas Territories…We are all part of this and we are going forward in unison. As a unified body, we are moving forward to make the case to the British Government that we, in the Overseas Territories, and with the establishment of the Overseas Territories Sports Council, should have access to a portion of that money. That is because we are developing the athletes representing Great Britain.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Cardigan Connor, Parliamentary Secretary, Sports, earlier commented on both the proposed athletic track in Anguilla and the Overseas Territories Sports Council. “The Minister mentioned about the track. It is something that is off the back of the success of Shara Proctor and Zharnel Hughes,” he stated. “We are looking to take every advantage – rather than just talk about it – and take the steps that are required in order to move forward.”
Mr. Connor added: “There is still some work to be done involving the IAAF, as well as the Sports Ministry in England … We will be putting the case forward as to the athletes that we produce here in Anguilla, up to a level of international medal-winning standard for which Great Britain gets the kudos. But we all think it is important that the grassroots and the foundation should be laid and should benefit from it. That will be put to the UK Ministry of Sports at the end of November.”
