Fifty to 75 athletes will learn practical skills they can apply in the 2011 Joseph Payne Memorial Classic and other future meets at a workshop to be held next Saturday at the McEnearney Showroom, Wildey.
Charles Walcott, organizer of the classic which will be held on January 29 at the National Stadium, felt it was necessary to have an educational component to the meet, which is being held for the second successive year.
The McEnearney Quality Track and Field Workshop and Health Fair starts at noon and will be catering to secondary school athletes and those who are in clubs and sports programmes.
Sessions will be conducted by sport psychologist Beverley Drakes; dietician Kimberley Rudder; Dr Adrian Lorde on Drugs In Sports and Dr Colin Alert on Fluids and Hydration.
Walcott said there was a possibility that drug testing would be done at the meet.
“This is just to give the athletes a heads-up on some of the areas they are being taught from time to time.
“We felt it was necessary to give them the information before the meet so they can perhaps go away, revise this information and have a better performance at the championship,” he said in a Press briefing at the Olympic Centre yesterday morning.
Physical education teachers and coaches are asked to submit the names which will be taken on a first-come, first-served basis.
Meanwhile, 65 track and field events are on the programme for the classic, as well as several cycling races. In addition to sprints, hurdles and middle distance running, there is a strong emphasis on field events.
Walcott, who still holds the national shot put record, was quite pleased that last year five athletes met the CARIFTA standard; John Jones qualified for the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Juniors and Justin Cummins for the CAC Games.
Jones won the incentive award for most outstanding field athlete and his name was the first be inscribed on the challenge trophy.
To date, Coleridge & Parry, The St Michael School, Springer Memorial, Princess Margaret Secondary, Parkinson Memorial, Wibisco Stars, Rising Stars, Elite Distance, Quantum Leap, Track & Field Academy, BC Trac and Pacers Track Club have confirmed participation.
As an added treat, cycling will once again be on the programme. Although the classic is scheduled to take place a few weeks before the official start of the cycling season, Barbados Cycling Union (BCU) president Keith Yearwood said BCU would be back and hoped to have these types of partnerships.
“We in the BCU want to work with the Athletics Association and other sporting bodies when they are having things at the stadium so we can put on cycling events alongside the events they are carrying on their programme. We think that it is worthwhile. we have a better audience and more people can see what the prowess in cycling is,” Yearwood said.
Wayne Robinson of the National Sports Council is expected to bring out his BMX riders, while the seniors, juniors and masters will get some early time on the track.
The BCU will also be running youth clinics (age six to 13) at the National Stadium on Saturday mornings for three months, starting in February.
The technical meeting will be held in the new lounge of the National Stadium on January 20. (SAT)
