Senior Games off-track

Sat, July 16, 2011 - 12:00 AM

Prime Minister Freundel Stuart and Minister of Social Care, Constituency Empowerment and Community Development Steve Blackett in their speeches at last Saturday’s National Senior Games awards ceremony announced plans for a more community oriented approach to the games and the spreading of the event over two days.

We can’t fault these plans. But we will say that there are some other matters that need urgent attention if the games are to remain viable.

We are aware of some grumblings – and by no less personages than the athletes themselves. Not to mention that as frequent spectators we have become aware of some of the problems.

There is concern that the behaviour of some officials does not demonstrate a valuing of seniors and their efforts. Some are surly and curt. And we have heard of discourteous dismissal of those who would dare to ask for their times, as though they are seeking what belongs to others. We know that these are times that try men’s souls.

But the people who time men’s tries should be more accommodating.

Unfortunately, ten years into the games’ run, times are not delivered on time, and horrible mistakes still occur.

It often seems that it is too much to expect that there would be no shortage of accurate, vital information about all the competitors in the various events.

We get the feeling, too, that the sense of party threatens to squelch the sense of contest. Take the music, for example. There is no motivational music,

like One Moment In Time or The Power Of The Dream or Reach or other emotive songs that energize self-belief, call forth a never-say-die attitude, stretch efforts, buoy the spirits of the day-long gladiators and bathe the arena in the unmistakable aura of contest – which, after all, is what it is.

And what about the more entertainment-oriented music? Where are the songs that older people love, that are beyond the pale of the limited daily rotation that caters to the young?

Yes, we want entertainment. But the various contests on the track and field are incontrovertibly entertainment.

The tension, the battle to a close finish, the never-giving-up efforts of even the last man or woman, the oomph in that long jumper’s take-off, the spectacle – that is entertainment. And that is the centrepiece. There should be nothing that even hints at trying to share the stage with it.

But as things are, not a few participating athletes feel almost marginalized, sensing that they are competing not only against fellow seniors but also against others who seem to be trying to grab the spotlight – deejays who constantly insert their music into the proceedings, stealing the athletes’ thunder, so that many a time as competitors run themselves out in the final metres of a race all they can hear is the pounding of bass, et cetera, rather than the roar and enthusiastic cheers of the crowd.

Or announcers who overindulge in banter, often not giving requisite information or paying little attention to ready starters and competitors on the line – so much so that not infrequently the athletes could almost warm down before the heralds do their heralding.

Let’s have the fun elements, the repartee, the music and so on – but as mere flavouring. For these are the National Senior Games, not just fun in the stands or the announcers’ booth or the deejay area as somewhere out there some old people busy themselves in arduous, sweat-filled, nerve-jangling struggle. None should intrude on or diminish their glory.

That is way off-track.