The 9th Annual XCEED Athletics Club’s Summer Camp is in train at the Richmond Hill Playing Field, albeit with major adjustments to suit the prevailing restrictions occassioned by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Director and Head Coach of the Club – Godfrey Harry confirmed that his Club had partnered with Team Athletics SVG and Thomas Saunders Secondary School to make certain that the athletes had the opportunity “to remain focused.”
Harry explained that with the suspension of this year’s Inter-School Athletics Championship in particular, it was vital that athletes, especially school athletes,”did not fall into a complete state of rest.”
Adjustments to the programme included the omission of the classroom developmental sessions, concentration on the sprints, jumps and throws only, and a decrease in the number of days per week, this aimed at limiting the exposure of athletes to the public at large during the period of Covid-19.
Commenting on how the suspension of competition has affected some athletes, Harry cited that athletes who would have had their last year in school (Form 5) “would have lost that opportunity to represent school and country,” the latter perhaps in reference to the postponed Junior CARIFTA Games.
And with special reference to the Thomas Saunders Secondary and the Grammar School, he singled out those athletes who would have lost the opportunity to compete at the Penn Relays because this year was their last year in school. “That would have been aa big disappointment for those athletes,” Harry suggested.
The break, though, according to Harry, would have given “the athletes with injuries a longer recovery time, and the summer programme in itself would help them to bounce back.”
And as far as what he expects the athletes to take away from the Camp, the experienced coach said, “camaraderie but a competitive attitude, which they will transfer to competitions.”
Harry expressed gratitude to Team Athletics SVG who took the initiative to partner