4 Saint Lucians receive certification from Olympic Committee!

Four Saint Lucians recently received National Course Directors certificates at a brief press conference at Olympic House located in La Clery. The recipients were Henry Bailey, Lisa Joseph and Victor Cornibert, all with the St Lucia Athletics Association and Yasmin Tyson from the St Lucia Aquatics Federation.

Prior to the presentation, Secretary General of the St Lucia Olympic Committee Inc, Alfred Emmanuel, explained what the National Course Directors certificate entails: “The certificate is clear. He or she is therefore entitled to conduct sports administrator courses, within the Olympic Solidarity Program of the national training courses for sports administrators. So let me on behalf of the Olympic Committee welcome you all to this prestigious club.

“We trust that you will take your work seriously. It is the plan of the Olympic Committee to build on its programs. We have certified more than 100 coaches to date and we would be looking in the very same direction as it relates to administrators.”

President of the SLOC Inc, Fortuna Belrose offered her congratulations and mentioned the importance and significance of the honor bestowed on the four indviduals. “I think one of the critical things for the St Lucia Olympic Committee is always to continue to build capacity. As you know we’ve been in existence since 1992-93 and part of our mandate has been to ensure the spread of Olympism across our country.

“The role you have taken on now, with approval by the International Olympic Committee, is critical towards achieving the goals that we want within our organization. As Alfred mentioned last year we trained well over 113 coaches, in addition to recently doing the program for 12 administrators. It is something we want to continue to build and strengthen this organization. We have this huge facility which has everything one needs to continue to train and build. We see your addition to the certified team by the IOC as valuable to our organization, to ensure that we achieve the mandate that has been set for us,” she said.

Belrose congratulated the four individuals on their achievement and encouraged them to continue the work they’re doing. She also mentioned the importance of not keeping the knowledge to themselves, but sharing it as much as possible and initiating programing as well.