SVGNOC May 2012 Newsletter

Citius Altius FortiusFaster, Higher, Stronger

1St. Vincent and the Grenadines

National Olympic Committee Newsletter

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SVGNOC turns 30The St. Vincent and the Grenadines National Olym-pic Committee was officially established on 6 January 1982. This year, 2012, therefore, marks the 30th an-niversary of the organisation and we intend to mark this occasion in a very spectacular way.The work of those who were involved in the struggle to realise a National Olympic Committee has already been acknowledged in the publication of the His-tory of the NOC, which was officially launched here on Tuesday 27 March 2012 in a brief ceremony at Frenches House.

Celebrations

25 Years of IOC MembershipOn 6 April 1982, the NOC applied to the IOC for membership of that organisation. However, since that time there were several exchanges between the NOC and the IOC on issues relating to the constitution of our body and the requirements of the IOC. All outstanding matters were resolved and at the IOC Session in Istanbul, Turkey, 9 – 12 May 1987, the IOC approved our applica-tion. The letter of recognition from the IOC to the N OC was dated 22 May 1987. This year therefore, the NOC celebrates its 25th year of IOC membership on 22 May.

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NOC Founder Dr. Lennox Adams, NOC President Trevor Bailey

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ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINESNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEEOLYMPIC HOUSENo. 1, Kingstown Park, KingstownSt. Vincent and the GrenadinesTel: 784-457-2970Fax: 784-485-6412Cell: 784-533-0869Email: [email protected]: www.svgnoc.org

Editorial2012 is a very important year in the calendar of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines National Olympic Committee. From our foundation to our accession of membership of the IOC through to our formation of the National Olympic Academy, there is much for us to celebrate.In early March. we celebrated the book launch of our Olympic History, the first by an NOC in the English-speaking Caribbean. This document serves as an important resource for students as well as a point of departure for further research into our Olympic sporting history and legacy.We are also about to celebrate the first edition of our Olympic Sports Hall of Fame in St. Vin-cent and the Grenadines, yet another the first in the English-speaking Caribbean.One of our schools, the St. Vincent Grammar School has been twinned with the Lealands High School in England as part of the outreach programme of the London Organising Com-mittee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG).Tolga Akcayli has already booked his place to the London Olympics as the lone Vincentian swimmer. Athletes in track and field Athletics have until 30 June to make the established stan-dards with Natasha Mayers, Kineke Alexander, Courtney Williams and Courtny Bascombe among those vying to make the team.Keithland King of Boxing is awaiting a decision by the governing body for the sport – AIBA – to determine whether he would receive a wild card.The NOC continues to offer programmes for the development of sport in St. Vincent and the Grenadines with sessions for athletes, sports

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NOA reaches 20On 11 November 1992, at a brief ceremony at Olympic House, Kingstown Park, the NOC officially launched the National Olympic Acad-emy (NOA) to serve as its educational arm – the first such institution to be developed in the English-speaking Caribbean. Then Minister of Education, Youth and Sport, John Horne, deliv-ered the feature address.Since then the NOA has undertaken a range of activities annually to bolster the image of the NOC and facilitate the spread of Olympism in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. This year we observe the 20th Anniversary of the NOA.

Olympic Hall of FameSt. Vincent and the Grenadines is relatively young in the International Olympic Movement but has taken the bold step of planning for its own Olympic Hall of Fame.Despite the several outstanding performances by Vincentians in sport there has been little by way of permanent recognition of them or their

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F.O. MASON3

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SVG loses sporting iconFO Mason is deadFrank Odel Mason, born 26 July 1926, the very

year that the first edition of the Central Ameri-can and Caribbean Games (CAC) were held, died on Tuesday 8 May 2012, just shy of his 86th birthday.The achievements of Frank Mason are legend-

ary for those who follow the sport of cricket. But in his childhood he was a sprinter and later the nation’s fastest and most fearsome bowler and national goalkeeper.Mason’s dominance of fast bowling at the local

level in the late 1940s through to the 1960s was of course overshadowed by the insularity that plagues Caribbean politics and sport to this very day.

Garfield Sobers, one of the fin-est cricketers ever to don flan-nels, recounted in his autobiog-raphy the insidious plot entered into by his Barbadian colleagues and himself to keep Mason out

of a place on the West Indies cricket team.Sobers wrote:‘The trials from the West Indies were very much

like our trials for the Barbados team. There were players you wanted on the team and players you wanted to knock off. Wes Hall and Frank Mason were competing for one of the places for a fast-bowler. At the time Frank was a better bowler than the young, up-and-coming Wes but Everton Weekes and I decided that we would take on Mason and knock him out of the firing line to try to get our fellow Bajan, Wes, in the team. Poor Frank could not believe what was happening to him as the ball flew to all corners of the boundary. Good balls were hit for four and bad balls for six. By contrast, we played a straight bat to everything Wes bowled saying ‘good ball ’ as we

played a half-volley back down the wicket. I was only a youngster, not yet 21, but Everton wanted our fellow islander in the team and coached me in the politics. I was sorry for Frank, because he was a darn good bowler, but it was Wes who was picked.’Some seem

to think that it was Sober’s conscience that piqued him to pen this piece and have it in-cluded in his autobiography.

Mason there-fore, lost out on an excellent opportunity to represent the region he loved so dearly.At the local

level, Mason boasts among his exploits bowling the amazing Frank Worrell at the King George V Park at Arnos Vale for a duck in one match and coming as a change bowler in another for 25 runs. Neither Worrell not Mason ever for-got the exciting piece of bowling that led to the former’s demise in little, seemingly insignificant St. Vincent.

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F.O. MASON cont’d

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leaders, coaches and technical officials. Wayne Williams is into the final phase of his MEMOS Executive Masters Programme in Sports Organisation Management. Rawlson Morgan has successfully completed the ICECP advanced programme for coach-es.On Friday 18 May, the NOC would team up with Team Athletics St. Vincent and the Grenadines to host Michael Tovar of MON-DO, one of the world’s leading suppliers of synthetic track surfaces, to discuss with the governmental authorities here the possibility of a track for use by athletes in the future.As we continue on our Road to London 2012 the NOC feels proud that we have come this far and look forward to all Vin-centians celebrating with as for the next several weeks through to the conclusion of the London Olympics.

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Mason, playing in his final game for St. Vincent and the Grenadines literally won a match against Dominica with a near unbelievable, 13 overs, 3 maidens, 13 runs, 9 wickets. As Mason so proudly stated, that’s how I ended my career.Frank Odel Mason was a friend of the

Olympic Movement in St. Vincent and the Grenadines making available to us at the National Olympic Academy his daughter, Sherrill-Ann, who was a leading figure in the early days of the organisation, the educa-tional arm of the National Olympic Com-mittee. FO also loaned the

NOA some of his per-sonal cricket memora-bilia including the ball with which he dismissed Dominica in that fate-ful match and a stump that he broke in an amazing spell of fast bowling.Unfortunately someone stole the ball with

which he dismissed Frank Worrell for a duck.FO Mason, dead at 85.

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achievements. The idea of the NOC establishing an Olympic Hall of Fame relates directly to the importance of paying due recognition to outstand-ing athletes, coaches, technical officials, administra-tors, sponsors and volunteers who have contributed much to where the Olympic Movement in St. Vin-cent and the Grenadines has reached in its growth and development.

Gala DinnerOn 14 June, the NOC will host a Gala Dinner to celebrate the foregoing milestones in its short his-tory. Invitations will be sent to all affiliates to ensure that we can share our achievements over the years.

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NOC delivers moreTechnical CoursesThe NOC here has already received approval to deliver to two local associations technical course for the training of coaches.The SVG Taekwondo Association will host a technical course during the period July 13-23 while the SVG Football Federation will host its coaching course during the period November 19-23, 2012. In both instances the funding will come via the NOC from Olympic Solidarity, the Development arm of the International Olympic Committee.The foregoing courses forms part of the qua-drennial programme of Olympic Solidarity with the NOC.

Swimming to get 6-month courseThe St. Vincent and the Grenadines Swim-ming Association is the latest national sports association affiliated to the NOC to benefit from an extended six-month course dubbed, Development of a National Sport Structure.Athletics, Basketball, Table Tennis, Tennis and Volleyball have already benefitted from similar programmes each valued at $25,000 USD.The expert approved by the international governing body for the sport (now called Aquatics) - FINA - is David Farmer of Barbados.The local association will benefit immensely from the experience of Farmer and would be in good stead especially since they now have access to a pool of their own.Indeed, the course was not extended to the local organisation in the past precisely because of the absence of a pool deemed suitable to the needs of FINA.The NOC is awaiting final approval and documentation for the programme to begin.The NOC is in no doubt that swimming would make full use of the opportunity provided.

NOC delivers ...Road to London 2012For some time the NOC has been engaged in a number of activities under the banner, Road to London 2012. These activities include but are not limited to:1. Exhibitions of sport memorabilia and the dis-semination of information on the Olympic Move-ment at schools around the country2. The hosting of programmes on radio in relation to interviews conducted by the NOA3. A national Sport Art Competition

4. Promotion of our participation in Olympic Qualification competitions5. Preparation for the London Olympics6. Promoting Sport and the Environment7. Supporting national sports associations8. Hosting of the Training of Trainers Workshop on the revised Manual for the Caribbean Coaching Certification Programme (CCCP)9. Conduct of workshops on Sport Leadership

Participants of the Sport Art workshop were Teachers and Students

Participants of the Caribbean Coaching Certification Programmme

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Delegates from Lealands visit the St Vincent and the Grenadines High CommissionOn Thursday 10th May, thirteen Year 10 students made their way to Kensington in London to visit the St. Vincent and the Grenadines High Commission. Despite getting a little confused on the underground we made our way to Kensington Place by mid-morning; it was easy to locate the Commission as all the buildings were flying their respective flags above the doorway.When we entered the building we were greeted by Mrs. Doris Charles, the Deputy High Commissioner who was to host us for the day. A programme had been arranged for us that enabled us to tour the building and meet the entire staff; it was surprising to discover that there were only eight including the Com-missioner.

The first office we entered was concerned with the promotion of Tourism; we were shown brochures of some fantastic Carib-bean resorts which made everyone envious

of the Islands lifestyle. For anyone who has seen the film ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, it will give you a flavour of St. Vincent as it was filmed there. The UK is where most tourists come from who visit the islands; we were shown an island we could buy if we had a few million pounds spare!!After climbing the stairs to the top of the build-ing we spent 20 minutes with the High Commis-sioner, Mr. Cenio Lewis who explained what his job entailed and how they were preparing to host their Olympic team.Lunch was provided in the beautiful ‘Blue Room’ where guests to the Commission were entertained; we sat around the grand table deciding how to solve delicate international issues.After lunch we spent the remainder of the day with Mrs. Charles who gave us a presentation about St. Vincent; we listened to music, looked at some of the cottage industry products from the islands, found out about the history and geography of the islands and finally Mrs. Charles stood and pas-sionately sang their National Anthem to the group. Her enthusiasm for her country was clear and it left the group keen to explore ways in which we could arrange an exchange between St. Vincent Grammar School and Lealands.As we made our way home we had a chance to look at the Olympic Rings hanging in St. Pancreas Station to welcome passengers entering the UK on the Eurostar.We would like to thank the SVG High Commis-sion for the time and effort they put into what was a very enjoyable and informative day.

TWINNING