Athletes named for Pan American Games

Saint Lucia’s contingent to the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru was recently announced at a press conference at the St Lucia Olympic Committee (SLOC) Inc headquarters in La Clery. The contingent to the Games consists of seven athletes representing athletics, swimming and sailing.

In attendance at the press conference were President of the SLOC Inc, Fortuna Belrose; Secretary General of the SLOC Inc, Alfred Emmanuel; Chef de Mission, David “Shakes” Christopher; Assistant to the Chef de Mission, Velica Augustin; Paula James of the St Lucia Swimming Federation; and Coach Henry Bailey. SLOC Inc Public Relations Officer Ryan O’Brian chaired the proceedings. 

Before the official announcement of Team St Lucia, there were opening remarks from Belrose. After welcoming everyone she said: “As you know, the St Lucia Olympic Committee really is the agency responsible for multi-sport games for Saint Lucia, and having Saint Lucia represented at these multi-sports events. This year is no exception and we have the 2019 Pan American Games upon us. Our responsibility as an Olympic Association is to ensure that we facilitate sporting excellence and encourage our members to strive for that excellence in the most effective way. This year we have been able to identify throughout our programming seven of the top best athletes who will be going out to represent Saint Lucia at the Pan American Games under the guidance of Chef de Mission David “Shakes” Christopher and Velica Augustin who is the Assistant to the Chef de Mission.” 

In the past, how well has Saint Lucia done at these Games? Berlose said: “This is the seventh edition of the Games [that] St Lucia is participating in. We have done so since 1995 where (sic) we participated in Argentina. Through the seven years we have won all three classes of the medals by two persons: Dominic Johnson—bronze in 2003 in pole vault, and Levern Spencer has done consistently well with a bronze, silver and now she is the defending champion with a gold medal.” 

Belrose pointed out the SLOC Inc supported quite a number of athletes through Olympic Solidarity Scholarships and that six of them competing at the Pan American Games “have benefitted tremendously from the financial support that we were able to muster for our athletes”.

She congratulated the associations that continue to produce athletes who have the calibre to represent us at international events, and mentioned athletics, sailing and swimming associations. 

 In closing, Belrose said: “Of course, we continue to support all our federations in the hope they will continue to turn out athletes. In the last seven months we have contributed half a million dollars, with respect to support to enable and facilitate programming for elite athletes within Saint Lucia. There is a lot of work still to be done at the base level of sport. That is something that has to be worked out with each of the national sports federations and, of course, the development agency, government agency within government for sport.”

Christopher, who is Chef de Mission, had the distinct pleasure of naming Saint Lucia’s contingent to the 2019 Pan American Games. First and foremost he mentioned Levern Spencer (high jump) followed by Jeanelle Scheper (high jump), Albert Reynolds (javelin), Sandisha Antoine (triple jump), Stephanie Devaux-Lovell (sailing), Luc Chevrier (sailing) and Jean Luc Zeph (swimming—100m and 50m free style). 

Augustin is the Assistant to the Chef de Mission. The contingent also includes coaches Henry Bailey, Peter James and Robert Hemming. Christopher said: “Hopefully we will be bringing back some medals for Saint Lucia. As the president mentioned a while ago, Levern has been doing very well at these Games and we do not expect anything different. We hope that the other athletes can be injury-free and have a good run because, you know, in sports, injuries can slow you down. I wish all the best and that we can go down to Lima and really represent Saint Lucia in a big way.”