Saba set to host Sports Competition

High school and sports teams from nearby is­lands will be coming to Saba late May for the Inter-Island Sports Competition. The four-day event is a joint ven­ture between the Saba Com­prehensive School (SCS), the Public Entity Saba and the Saba United Sports Federa­tion.

Teams can compete in soccer, volleyball, basket­ball, track and field, open water swimming and run­ning. Some 200 participants, youngsters and coaches, have already signed up from Saba, St. Maarten, St. Eustatius and Anguilla. Also invited have been St. Martin, St. Barth and St. Kitts & Nevis.

The opening ceremony takes place on Thursday af­ternoon, May 30, at the Jo­han Cruyff Field, followed by two opening games: a male soccer match where SCS will play against the Carib­bean International Academy (CIA) from St. Maarten, and a female soccer match where SCS will play against An­guilla.

On Friday, May 31, the Sea to SCS Island Relay Race will take place, as an alter­native to the Sea to Scenery Race which is held close to Saba Day. Also, on that day
volleyball, basketball and soccer matches will take place. The basketball and volleyball matches take place at the schools’ gym, while the soccer match is at the Field.

On Saturday morning, June 1, there will be open water swimming at the Fort Bay Harbor, as well as track and field with high jump at the Field. Both the open wa­ter swimming and the track and field will have a male and female competition. In the early afternoon, the soc­cer match takes place at the Field, followed by the vol­leyball finals at the gym, and in the evening the basketball finals.

The soccer finals take place on Sunday morning June 2, again at the Field, followed right after by the awards and closing ceremony. The teams from the other islands will leave that same afternoon. During the events on all four days, there will be food and drinks for sale, both at the Field and at the SCS. The event will be alcohol-free and free of disposable plas­tics as much as possible.

Encourage
Commissioner of Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs Rolando Wilson encour­aged the community to come out to support the long weekend events. “Let’s welcome the youngsters, their guardians and coaches to the shores of Saba. As is­lands we all form part of the Caribbean. We are broth­ers and sisters, and it is im­portant to get together and exchange ideas. As Com­missioner I want to create links with the other Carib­bean islands, especially the Dutch Caribbean islands, to foster economic, social and cultural development, while promoting sports vigorous­ly,” he said.

The idea to have a sports competition between the islands was born late 2018 as an initiative of SCS. “Our students miss taking part in competitions, espe­cially in soccer. This led to some unhappy faces. So, we decided to do some­thing about that,” said SCS Director Anton Hermans, who together with Peter Johnson, Angela van Mu­ria (both of SCS) and sports facilitator of the Public En­tity Saba Joelyn Robinson sits on the organizing com­mittee. Overall coordinator is Shaigan Marten, also of SCS.

The Daily Herald.