WORK ON THE NATIONAL STADIUM AHEAD OF SCHEDULE

by David Harris

The construction of the new National Stadium is ahead of schedule; this was disclosed by   Minister of Sports Charles Griffith during an update to journalists on the progress of several sports faculties. 

Work on the construction of a new National Stadium at Waterford, St Michael began in September last year. The project is being executed in phases through an $80 million grant from the People’s Republic of China and is expected to span two years. 

Speaking to journalists alongside members of the Commonwealth Sports Executive Board during a road tennis showcase at the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex in Wildey, St Michael  earlier this week Griffith said : “On my last report the Chinese would have indicated that the National Stadium is ahead of time; and that is a positive”. 

Griffith disclosed that the government is building offices for several national sporting federations in Wildey. 

  “If you look around and you see what is happening here in the Wildey area. We are building homes for various disciplines.  The one thing that I would say is that the government cannot build a home for every single national federation. Therefore, it must be a case where we can share facilities, and I think the federation needs to understand that they must work together,” Griffith said. 

The minister said that he had discussions with the Basketball, Volleyball and the Netball Associations,  which have indicated that they are willing to share an office facility. 

Griffith revealed that he is exploring the possibility of setting up an anti-doping laboratory in Barbados. 

“One of my concerns in terms of anti-doping is that we need to have a facility in the region; I am hoping that we can retrofit one of our labs here. The cost of testing is too high; we have to send our tests to Canada which is really expensive -and I think as a region that we should be able to test right here in the region if the skillsets are available within the region. Why not?  And if it is possible that we can develop or retrofit one of our labs here, then I think that would be a good thing for the region”, Griffith explained.