The disappointment is great, within the local sports world: there will be no International Meeting of Athletics of Guadeloupe, this year. This, for lack of money: the priorities are elsewhere, for public and private partners, in this post-Covid crisis period.
The Guadeloupe International Athletics Meeting, which traditionally takes place in May, will be absent from the sports calendar this year 2022.
It was to be held on the 23rd.
But the organizers threw in the towel, faced with the financial difficulties generated by the withdrawal, particularly of the major communities; this year, they did not obtain public funds. Private contributors are also rare. The priorities of each other are elsewhere, in this period of exit from the health crisis.
This is how a part of the sporting heritage of the archipelago collapsed.
For about fifteen years, Guadeloupe has received big names from the slopes, who came to set foot on our soil to take part in this sporting event, one of the largest in the Caribbean.
This meeting allowed the local public to appreciate and see the world’s best athletes evolve.
We had the opportunity to see, in Baie-Mahault, the American sprinter Maurice Green, his compatriot Allyson Felix (the most successful athlete in the 100m, 200m and 400m events, individually and in the relay), 110-meter hurdles specialist Allen Johnson, also from the USA, but also Colombian jumper Caterine Ibarguen (specialist in triple jump, long jump and high jump); without forgetting the local representatives who shine internationally: the queens of the French sprint Christine Arron and Patricia Girard, or even Wilhem Belocian (110m hurdles).
Some find it hard to admit that today such an event disappears, while the Guadeloupe Region regularly praises our ” Land of Champions ».
But the reality is that even the 2020 Olympic Games have been postponed for a year, due to the health crisis.
Guadeloupe’s economy must be rebuilt. We can only regret that it is sometimes to the detriment of sporting events.
