Donna Watson was last night given the vote of confidence by the Track and Field members to re-elect as President, following the meeting www.islandstats.com asked Watson a few question to reflect on her first term in office as the President. Today we bring you Part One of a Two Part interview with Watson.
Q. What would you say has been the biggest accomplishment of your tenor incharge?
A. My biggest accomplishment for the year was getting the funding for Tre Houston and Tyrone Smith to assist with their preparation for Commonwealth Games. When I speak to Houston and listen to how excited he is about the opportunity he has been given it makes the time that I have put in to this sport worthwhile. I can't leave out the banquet as I think that was a huge success and again the excitement that Troy Douglas, Nicky Saunders and Brian Wellman bought to the event was invaluable and I think the speeches that they gave to the athletes has really motivated these athletes and I see a new commitment in the way they approach track & field.
Q. When you was elected what was some of the first things you put in place?
A. One of the first things that I put in place was that I wanted to make sure that every opportunity that we have to send athletes, officials and coaches to events overseas we were going to be sending them. Financially it could have been tough but what I found out is that the more track meets, courses that you send to these events the more financial assistance we get from the IAAF and NACAC. So I am please to say that we sent a team to every International event last year and we also sent officials to courses and we sent coaches to courses and now all of our coaches are now at the least Level I certified.
Q. How have you improve the atmosphere at Track Meets?
A. I feel that once you have an administration that the athletes can feel comfortable and confident with it rolls over to the athletes. I think it is important that the President communicate often with the athletes letting them know what you are looking to do, your expectations for them and of course letting them know that they will always have support from you. I feel you have to show them that you mean it and not just talk about it. I think the athletes have seen that I and the committee have their back and if they perform they will get rewarded. I go to the stadium all of the time and watch the athletes train, they feel comfortable coming and talking to me about anything and I can meet them at their level. It is truly an atmosphere of some confident athletes and you can see that they are really enjoying it. I am sure that if you were at the Interschool sports that you can see that most of the athletes who won the events were the athletes that train and they wanted to show off all of the hard work that they had put in and they were very confident in their events.
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