By Lincoln Depradine
Toronto, Canada: The last time a city in eastern Canada hosted a major track and field event over the July/August period, Kirani James – Grenada’s 400-meter Olympic champion – was not even born as yet.
In 1976 – a full 16 years before the birth of Kirani – Montreal was home to the summer Olympic Games. The stars of the XXI Olympiad in Montreal, Canada, included Trinidad and Tobago’s Hasley Crawford who won gold in the 100; and Jamaican Don Quarrie who captured the 200 meters.
In the 100-meter sprint, Crawford was first in 10.06 seconds – just 0.02 seconds ahead of Quarrie.
Now, Toronto – Canada’s largest and most metropolitan city – is preparing to host a kind of “mini Olympics’’, the 2015 Pan American Games. And, representatives from Grenada and other Caribbean and Latin American countries have just been briefed on the Canadians’ plans for the event.
Royston La Hee and Veda Bruno-Victor joined more than 350 delegates, including representatives from the International Olympic Committee, national olympic committees and sports federations, that visited Toronto for a four-day meeting of the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO).
La Hee, president of the Grenada Olympic Committee (GOC), said that Toronto officials provided a detailed update that included technical information and a progress report on the construction of the Games’ village.
On the final day of the PASO general assembly, delegates from the GOC and 40 other national sport organizations voted to award the 2019 Pan Am Games to Lima, Peru.
Peru, which never before has been host to the Pan Am Games, received the nod to do so over competing bids from Chile, Argentina and Venezuela.
The 2015 Toronto Games’ village will accommodate 10,000 athletes and officials. About $500 million has been budgeted for the village construction.
In commenting on the project, Charles Sousa – the provincial minister responsible for the Toronto Pan Am Games – said: “It’s going to be done on time and it is going to be done on budget.’’
The 2015 Pan Am Games will feature competition in 36 sports. They will include, for the first time at the Games, golf, women’s rugby and women’s baseball.
When the Games are over, the village will be converted into hundreds of affordable housing units and condos, as well as residence spaces for 500 college students. It will also be home to a new YMCA.
Twice before – in 1967 and 1999 – the Pan Am Games were held in Winnipeg, the capital of the Canadian west-coast Province of Manitoba.
Bruno-Victor, GOC general secretary, is optimistic that it won’t be too long before Grenada is hosting a top regional meet such as the CARIFTA Games.
She told journalist Michael Bascombe, who was in Toronto covering the PASO meeting, that with the athletics stadium in St George’s being rebuilt by the Chinese government, she expects Grenada will be in a position to host CARIFTA “very soon; probably in 2016/17 thereabout’’.
