Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley is encouraging sportsmen and women to pay greater attention to maintaining their fitness levels if they are to be at the top of their chosen sporting discipline.
She made this call today during the launch of the Prime Minister’s Cup Football Tournament at the Barbados Football Association’s (BFA) headquarters at the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex, Wildey, St. Michael.
Ms. Mottley stressed that there needs to be a change in the approach by those who play sports in this country so that they can maintain good fitness and wellness.
“And that has to change in Barbados, and we need community by community … to be able to [achieve this] …. Mac [Fingall], I am appealing to you because you have spent your life teaching and he was the first one to tell me, as a young Minister of Education, that we must talk with, and not talk to, or at [people].
“We need to talk with our young people from ages seven, eight, nine, 10 and 11 and even the ones who are teenagers now and to explain to them, why their diet…their fitness… and the things that undermine fitness, like alcohol and smoking, will not help them if they intend to be a serious athlete,” the Prime Minister insisted.
Ms. Mottley continued: “That does not mean that when you are in the off-season that you cannot have a drink ‘here and there’, but the reality is that you and I both know that once that becomes too much, what happens to the body.
“It starts to underperform and therefore, the very thing that you want, which is an opportunity, who is the denying it? not a stranger…but yourself. That has to be the message that goes out there.”
The Prime Minister stressed that if the tournament achieved nothing else, she is hopeful that it would result in a change in the ecosystem “surrounding” how sporting individuals sustain themselves and make themselves capable of being the best that they can be as they proceed to higher levels in sports.
“This issue of wellness is a habit and it has to stay with you for life. Those who inculcate that habit from an early stage, have a better chance of sustaining [themselves]…. We have to understand that this is an individual choice, but if we don’t expose our children to it…if we don’t value it, if we don’t hold on to it, we are going to find that this thing is going to have diminishing returns…. Lung capacity matters and balance matters and I want that message to go through to our youngsters as we go forward,” Ms. Mottley underlined.
The structured semi-professional tournament will run for 14 weeks, starting on Sunday, August 25, and ending on Independence Day, Saturday, November 30.
There will be 89 matches played by 24 teams in communities across Barbados vying for the top prize of $100,000 and other prizes. Under this format, players and management will be paid for each game.
There were also addresses by Minister of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment, Charles Griffith, and President of the BFA, Randolph Harris, while the Chairman of the Organising Committee, Omari Eastmond, gave an overview of the competition.