UNTIL SUCH TIME as local coaches arm themselves with the relevant knowledge and ability to apply it, Barbadian athletes will continue to struggle to reach world-class level.

That is the assessment of coach Alwyn Babb, reinforced after he recently attended the IAAF World Junior Championships in Beijing, China.

"While I was in the warm-up area, I observed coaches and what they were doing with their athletes, to see if they were more talented than we are.

We are one-to-one in terms of talent, but they will beat us in numbers. "Sometimes we are even more talented than those athletes from Europe, but their coaches are more inclined to research and seek knowledge to move the talent they have from good juniors to world beaters," Babb told NATIONSPORT.

"It is not the athletes we are blaming, it is the coaches who have the responsibility of moving our athletes [forward] from CARIFTA [Games] or Central American and Caribbean [championships]. For years, we have been asking why our athletes go no further. It is the application of knowledge."

He noted that coaches remained at one level, they did the same things over and over. Eventually the results declined, athletes became disgusted with the lack of performance and then quit.

Babb, who holds an IAAF Level 2 certificate in sprints and jumps, said he benefited from nightly meeting with coaches from the North America, Central America and Caribbean (NACAC) federation while in China. Coaches from Jamaica, The Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, and Cuba among others, took part in the meetings.

"We discussed the day's training, looked at different areas in sport and shared ideas. For me, in terms of sports preparation, it gave me added information for my approach to the next season, especially in sprint preparation.

"There are teaching points that I intend to add to my training programmes for next season and look at moving our sprinters up a bit."