There are now eight zones in the National Primary School Athletics Championship (NAPSAC), with the addition of three new ones, named after sporting icons Marcia Trotman, Ryan Brathwaite, and Freida Nicholls.
The new zones were selected today by Minister of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment, Charles Griffith, and Deputy Chief Education Officer, Joy Adamson, during the 2022 NAPSAC Icon Reveal and Zonal Draw, at the Wildey Gymnasium.
Eighty-five public and private primary schools were randomly placed in the eight zones, by past chairman of the NAPSACC Committee, Vaman Harbin.
In congratulating NAPSAC on its 20th anniversary, Minister Griffith said: “It is important to have initiatives like this to move our young people forward.… I want to say to you that NAPSAC encompasses every sphere of my ministry, youth, sports, community empowerment.
He lauded the organisers for planning the event even though COVID-19 was still very much present in the country. “I want to really salute the organisers of this particular event … because to plan an event of this magnitude in the middle of COVID is clearly an example of those organisers, being proactive and looking at the future and how we can adapt to COVID because it’s going absolutely nowhere,” he said.
Mr. Griffith added: “Sports is one of those events, one of those activities that would have put Barbados on the map in a significant way…. NAPSAC is one of those things that I believe can empower communities. It is the youth when we are talking about community empowerment.”
While stating that plans were on stream to build 15 stadia across Barbados in an effort to help move athletes from the community level to the Olympics, he said: “It is the intention of my ministry, the intention of Government to ensure that those stadia are developed at a level that we can have track meets at those locations, where persons, who would then feed into NAPSAC, will have an opportunity to perform at the local level first, meaning at community level and then transcend into NAPSAC fully ….
“I want to assure you that plans are in train to ensure that all of our young athletes are developed, that we have a situation where in the next couple of years that we can be pleased about podium places, not only at Commonwealth and CARIFTA, but also at the Olympics.”