Bermuda National Athletics Association (BNAA) President Donna Watson released a statement on behalf of the organization.
“We the BNAA understand that the economy is not in a good space but charities need to realize that they cannot just put on road races as they please. Any road race has to come through the BNAA as the Governing Body to be sanctioned. We are seeing races pop up that are not on our official calendar and they are being scheduled for the same day as other races. The public need to know that every sport has a Governing body and they cannot just go out to any sport and do as they please. We have all rights to cancel a race if it has not been sanctioned by us. We have already had an incident last year when 2 races were held on the same day and that was a disaster. We would never schedule 2 races on the same day be it one in the morning and one in the afternoon as one race will always suffer. The public need to respect our organization and again realize they cannot do what they want to do when it comes to Road Races. They have to follow the governing rules and go through the right channels by contacting the BNAA to ask for the race to be added to our calendar and based on the date they choose we will grant them permission. We normally have our calendar out by September 1st with the first race taking place Labor Day. If anyone wants to submit a race they can send a submission to our office bnaa@logic.bm and we will advise if we can accommodate the race.”
Watson went on to say, “You cannot just wake up and decide you want to put on a race. This would cause our Road Race calendar to be totally out of control. That does not happen in any other sport.”
Watson concluded, “I just want to clarify that we are only speaking of road running races. The charities can have walks without them having to be sanctioned by the BNAA. Once it is a running race it needs to be sanctioned by the BNAA.”
