Trinidad & Tobago will host the 2005 CARIFTA Games. That decision comes after the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) staged an ad-hoc committee meeting on Monday, 18 October in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to determine the destination of the next edition of the region’s junior track and field championships, widely regarded as one of the finest such events in world athletics. Grenada's stadium ruined by Ivan The meet was to have been staged 26-29 March in St George’s, Grenada. It would have been the second time in six years the Spice Isle has hosted the meet, having put on the Games in 2000, at what was then the Caribbean’s newest stadium. Today Grenada’s National Stadium is in ruins, it was one of the many victims of Hurricane Ivan, a deadly storm that swept the Eastern Caribbean in early September. With 90 percent of the island’s houses in ruins, not to mention hotels in which visiting athletes would have stayed, it was all but a foregone conclusion that Grenada would be unable to host the Games. But NACAC gave the island’s federation every chance to hold on to the Games, whilst inviting other territories to declare themselves as alternate venues for the meet. Other nations declared their willingness to stage the Games, but two made formal submissions to NACAC. Trinidad and Tobago’s National Amateur Athletics Association (NAAA) and Jamaica’s Amateur Athletics Association (JAAA) were both considered. Led by NACAC President Amadeo Francis, however, the five-man committee opted to keep the Games in the southern Caribbean. Trinidad & Tobago is Grenada’s immediate neighbour to the south. Speaking last week, Kenneth Doldron (president of the NAAA) said that everything was in place for the staging of a successful meet in 2005. A Games Village for the first time ever “When you’re looking at staging a major meet,” he explained, “there are certain things you must look at outside of the actual running of the event. You must take care of meals, transport and accommodation.” In fact, Mr Doldron says that the hundreds of athletes and officials from all corners of the Caribbean are likely to be treated to accommodation that surpasses anything most of them have seen before. “When you go to big international meets,” contends Doldron, “they put the athletes up in five-star hotels. I think that’s the direction we need to be moving in the Caribbean, and that’s why we intend to set up a Games Village, which I don’t think has ever been done with CARIFTA.” Games to be held in Tobago Word is that the NAAA is thinking of having the Games at the Dwight Yorke Stadium in Bacolet, on the smaller island of Tobago. That poses a whole new set of questions as to the preparedness of the venue and Tobago’s ability to comfortably stage such an event. As the days and weeks go by, there is going to be much more news coming out of the Hummingbird Isle. But the award of the 2005 Games to Trinidad and Tobago will have a snowball effect. The twin-island republic was to have staged the 2006 Games. Now a new host will have to be found for that championship. SOURCE: IAAF.ORG (Terry Finistere photo)