On December 27th the Minister of Youth Sports and Culture Desmond Bannister said that his ministry has committed to more than $600,000 in upgrades to the Grand Bahama track and field facility.

According to the sports minister repairs are expected to be finished in time for the Central American and Caribbean Age Group Championships in June 2009.

“We are putting a Mondo surface there which will be the envy of the world and I also expect that the track would be protected by the BAAA because this is going to be one of the fastest surfaces that you would find anywhere outside of Beijing,” said Bannister.

Bannister noted that a six year life span for a track surface is not good enough after it was determined in 2006 that the track badly needed repairs.

“The new track surface is expected to last 300 years and I want to encourage officers of the BAAA, to ensure that we educate athletes sufficiently so that they know these are not practice surfaces,” he said.

He explained that the government would put down a practice track in Grand Bahama and the main stadium would be for competition only.” 

In 2000 the Grand Bahama community was very excited and proud to finally open their own top of the line track and field facility in Freeport, so much so that may have overlooked the importance of maintaining the track surface and in six short years major repairs are needed to bring the stadium track back to world-class standards.