This weekend, in addition to following the fortunes of our elite athletes at the Summer Olympics in Paris, France, their younger counterparts were scheduled to have been engaged in multi-sport competition of their own much closer to home.
The Canadian Bank Note/Winlott Inc. Windward Islands Schools Games (WISG), for student-athletes aged 20 and younger, were due to get underway on Saturday at Arnos Vale in neighbouring St Vincent & the Grenadines.
That territory, of course, was severely affected by Hurricane Beryl in recent weeks, leading to the cancellation of the youth sports festival.
Acting Director of Sports in the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports, Clivus Jules told St. Lucia Times that competition venues were, mercifully, largely unaffected. However, the Vincentians were faced with other serious logistical challenges.
“St Vincent & the Grenadines had to make the call because of the passage of Beryl,” he lamented. “Some of the facilities were impacted by the hurricane and although most of the damage was done in the Grenadines, the accommodation is where the struggle really started.
“A lot of the room stock in the areas we were using for the accommodation for the Games had to be used to shelter people from the Grenadines. So on the heels of that, they made a call to to cancel for this year.”
This is actually the fourth time in five years that WISG will be absent from the calendar.
The tournament was struck down by the Covid pandemic from 2020 to 2022, returning in Grenada in 2023. Saint Lucia last hosted in 2018, and last won in 2019, when the Commonwealth of Dominica were the hosts.
Jules expressed his disappointment, and that of the athletes, whom he said have been working diligently towards participation at the Games.
Notwithstanding the unfortunate news from St Vincent & the Grenadines, the director disclosed to St. Lucia Times that plans are afoot for the athletes to be given an outlet in the coming weeks.
“The athletes were really looking forward to that, so as anything they would be disappointed. And a lot of them you know this is a high point for them, you look forward to that as an athlete. You go to the School Games, you build up a network with students from other islands. So naturally they would be disappointed.”
“We have had some discussion with respect to doing something for the athletes, just to let them showcase their talent,” he reflected. “Given the preparation that they would have done, just to put it out there on show, maybe locally – we even explored taking a group to Martinique.
“But the discussions are still pretty young on that. Within the next week or so, though, we should have made some decisions on what we will do for the athletes we were preparing for Windward Islands School Games.”
WISG is said to have existed in some form or other since the 1920’s. Historically, though, it was a boys-only competition.
In the last decade or so, there has been a minor evolution, with an increase in the maximum team size, changes to age criteria, and the addition of girls’ basketball, even though none of the four territories has a competitive schoolgirl league.
In the current iteration, teams of 72 athletes from each of the four Windward Islands compete over the course of eight days in track and field, basketball, volleyball, netball (girls only), and football (girls only).
The Games are not held under the auspices of the governing bodies for the sports. Rather, they are held under the aegis of sports ministries in the four territories.
Jules admits that it may be time for further change.
“There have been a lot of questions about the present form of the Windward Islands School Games,” Jules conceded. “Up to the last technical meeting that we had the discussions came again, that the Games have not quite evolved to meet the needs of the time.
“When you look at the Windward Islands School Games, you have a quota of 70 athletes to compete in eight different sporting disciplines. If you add it at bare minimum you are short of athletes.
“So you’re not necessarily able to get the best representation from each of the four countries in every sport. And we’ve we’ve discussed that at length, and the the discussion now is going in the direction of making some adjustments to the structure of the Games to be more accommodating to the demands of today’s sporting arena.”
Grenada hosted and won the Windward Islands School Games in 2023.
