With the London Olympics and Paralympics now concluded, the word in the name of British Sport is ‘Legacy’….To build upon the successes of London 2012.
It was therefore a great pleasure to accompany Anguilla’s own Shara Proctor as she embarked upon her own personal 2-day ‘Legacy’ road-show to visit every school on the island during her brief visit home last week…incidentally, her first visit home for 2012 and a visit that lasted less than 4 days.
Shara met with the students and teachers alike and brought with her messages of hard-work, a determination to succeed and the need for every student to achieve the right ‘attitude’ to his or her school work and life skills. In asking many of the students to define the word ‘Altitude’, Shara then pointed out that a good “Attitude will determine Altitude”….the greater the ‘Attitude’ then the greater heights one can reach in life.
Shara told the pupils and students how important it is to gain a good education here on Anguilla so as to set themselves up for greater opportunities abroad – in Colleges and Universities, establishments that harbor great facilities. She also pointed out that many students to whom she was speaking may currently be struggling with aspects of their work, and that they need to talk to their parents, teachers and friends and to keep trying until one day they realize that they too can succeed. She pointed out that, as a World Class Athlete, you can experience days when things do not go as planned, but that is the time when you try again and again to achieve those successes.
Shara was accompanied by Lorna Rogers, President of the Anguilla Amateur Athletics Association, who reminded all that Shara was a product of Anguilla’s Track and Field programme at the JRW Park. Lorna went on to say that here was a World Class Athlete, not from the huge shores of the USA or Russia or China, but from one of the smallest Nations on the planet…Anguilla and, incidentally, a former student of the Stoney Ground School. Lorna charged any student to aspire to becoming a World Class Athlete, following in Shara’s path and achieving success in life.
It was pleasing to see Shara sign autographs in the pupil’s books, pose for photographs with the teachers and individual classrooms, and bring her thoughts and stories of the London Olympics back home to her beloved homeland of Anguilla.
Shara will by now be back training at her base in Daytona Beach, USA, but already her Olympic Legacy has lit the torch for so many of Anguilla’s youth.
Thank you, Shara, and may God keep you fit and healthy as you continue into a new year and new season of World Class Athletics.
Coach
Sports-Talk Anguilla.
