Minister of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment, Charles Griffith has confirmed that plans are underway to execute a partnership with Jamaica aimed at enhancing athletics training and coaching quality in Barbados. Photo: Internet Source

This collaboration, according to the Minister, will involve an exchange of coaching expertise to elevate the standard of sports training. 

Revealing that the plans to pave the way to the bilateral initiative are now official, the Minister noted that “there’s a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) between Jamaica and us to exchange coaches to be able to work with them in terms of how we develop”.

“I was in Washington at a conference and had a sit-down with Minister [Olivia] Grange, Minister of Sports in Jamaica. They have worked with Trinidad in terms of developing the coaches there,” he revealed. 

Griffith, who was speaking at a constituency meeting on Sunday, admitted concerns about the current coaching standards in Barbados and emphasised the necessity of having highly skilled coaches to match the calibre of world-class athletes. 

According to him, “I won’t push it at this meeting but I’m concerned with the level of coaches. I think that if you’re going to have a world-class athlete, you must match that athlete with a world-class coach.”