by Linda Straker
Media workers, and in particular sports reporters in Grenada, will be participating in a special training programme that will provide them with in-depth knowledge about CARIFTA games, and the athletes that will be engaging in competition when the games are held in Grenada in March 2016.
Veda Bruno–Victor, Chairman of the local organising committee, said that the idea of having the training is to ensure that those who will be participating in the broadcasting of the Games share correct information with the audience.
“We want to ensure that when they say anything, it’s accurate,” said Bruno–Victor, when she spoke at a ceremony last week Monday, at which officials from the Grenada Athletics Association and the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletics Association signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the hosting of the Games in Grenada. The occasion was used to unveil the official logo for the Games.
One of the persons expected to engage reporters in the training session is Michael Bascombe, who was recently appointed as the Chairperson of the Press/Media Commission of North American Central American and Caribbean Athletics Association (NACAC).
NACAC is the franchise holder of the games, and is also expected to travel with broadcasters for the games — Bruno–Victor said that she is hoping for local sports broadcasters to also be members of the regional broadcasting team.
The staging of the 45th edition of 2016 CARIFTA Games will cost about EC$2 million, Bruno–Victor said in an earlier news conference. It will be held at the rebuilt National Athletics Stadium from 26 to 28 March 2016, and 800 athletes and officials from 27 countries will be in Grenada.
“This is what we are expecting, and it’s going to be a record-breaking CARIFTA games,” she said. This will the second time in 16 years the Games will been staged in Grenada after hosting the regional event in 2000, but unable to do so in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan (September 2004), and this resulted in moving it to Tobago.
