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Saint Lucia’s track dreams at this year’s Commonwealth Games remain alive as the Men’s 4x100m Relay Team qualified on Saturday at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

The quartet of Delan Edward, Lenyn Leonce, Michael Joseph and Stephan Charles ran a record-breaking 39.96s in the Men’s 4x100m Relay – Round 1 Heat 2, finishing fourth.

Nigeria took first place with 38.85s, with Kenya and The Gambia copping second and third places with 38.92s and 39.77s respectively.

Team Saint Lucia’s performance on Saturday smashed the previous National Record, which stood at 40.96s.

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“Basically, we were well prepared for the 4x100m Relay,” said Henry Bailey, Athletics Team Coach, following the race. “I mean, the boys worked extremely hard, and, of course, one of our major objectives was achieved, in that we were able to set a new National Record.”

He added: “It’s our first Men’s 4x100m Relay Team at the Commonwealth Games. Previously, we had a 4x100m Relay Team at the Panam Games.”

Sunday’s Finals will feature Nigeria, Kenya, The Gambia, Saint Lucia, England, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Singapore.

Bailey said the team is now focused on resetting its goals to see whether they can better both their time and place in the Men’s 4x100m Relay Finals on Sunday.

Team Captain, Lenyn Leonce, said the win was a relief for the team, having made a few errors in the race.

“We had a shaky performance at first. Our exchanges weren’t as good as they should have been. But it’s something that we’re working on and we’re just glad that we got the new National Record and we’re in the Finals,” Leonce explained.

As for expectations for Sunday’s Finals, he said: “Anything can happen in the Finals. We’re just going to go out there and do our best. Whatever the result is, we’ll be fine with it. Hopefully, we’ll get a new National Record again on the one we just established.

Source: Commonwealth Games (Saint Lucia). Headline photo: Saint Lucia’s Men’s 4x100m Relay Team following their record-breaking feat at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

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Another 43 persons have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours.

This now takes actives cases in Guyana to 496 including one patient in the Covid-19 ICU and the remaining persons in either home (481) or institutional isolation (14).

Seven other persons are also in institutional quarantine.

The Covid-19 death toll in the country remains at 1271, while some 68,359 person have recovered from the life-threatening virus to date.

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PARAMARIBO — President Chandrikapersad Santokhi heeft toegezegd de stichting Social Army te ondersteunen bij het uitvoeren van sociale projecten. De

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Within the first two lines of the territorial song — “out of the huts of history’s pain, our ancestors bled and died” — lie a commemoration, one that was celebrated on Monday during the annual emancipation service led by Reverend Dr. Melvin A. Turnbull.

“As we celebrate our emancipation on this 31st day of July 2022, I suggest we might be doing so with mixed emotions,” he said. “On one hand we are glad to be alive, on the other hand, we mourn for our fallen brothers and sisters.”

At least two dozen people gathered at the Sunday morning well where the service was held on Monday at 4 p.m. following a solemn march from the Old Government House.

Those gathered for the service began the day with the song “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” followed by an invocation by lay preacher Rosemary Flax and opening remarks by Dr. Turnbull.

Dr. Turnbull encouraged the congregation to not get lost in the African diaspora and to remember that they share a common legacy and a “common enemy.”

“Your enemy is not people. They are just the conduits, the tools, the puppet, in which the enemy acts,” he said. “I plead with us as a people of the Virgin Islands to stop fighting with each other. Let us come together.”

History

Premier Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley spoke after, sharing a history of the emancipation march and service.

“August 1 marks 188 years since we have been a free people,” said Dr. Wheatley. “Since then, as a tradition and in remembrance of our legacy, we have been keeping and observing this time as one where we give all praise and thanks to God for his favour in granting our foreparents the desires of their heart, our freedom.”

He said that their sacrifice for emancipation shouldn’t be forgotten.

“We must reflect on the Trans-Atlantic slave trade as formally recognized to have taken place from 1526 to 1867 during which time over 12 million men, women and children were stolen from their homes,” he said.

He added that there have been enslaved people from Africa in the Virgin Islands as early as the 1600s, stating that it was a very “dark period” in the history of the territory.

“We observe emancipation because history must not forget what our foreparents went through and neither must we,” Dr. Wheatley said. “They struggled, determined to be free so that we, their progeny, can be free.”

Throughout the region, other countries and territories share similar histories, Dr. Wheatley said. Most of the islands had enslaved ancestors whose families were “broken up” by plantation owners, and when the economic model of slavery collapsed in these lands, the enslaved people found ways to survive by working with each other through trading and bartering, he said.

“We have examples we can relate to with our family in St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix, the Turks and Caicos and so forth,” he said. “But I want us to recognise that this family circle is wider, much wider than we often perceive, and we have a lot in common with our brothers and sisters not just in our immediate vicinity, but further afield.”

Festivities

Education, Culture, Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Sharie DeCastro said that the Virgin Islander identity was created by ancestors who were determined to secure their freedom.

“I am reminded that our annual emancipation festivities began with picnics, dances, horseracing and boat racing organised by members of the community,” she said. “Later on, the churches alternated the spearheading of the fete on the field, a family-oriented and faith-based event.”

The service closed off with a sermon by Reverend Dr. Bartholomew Orr of the Brown Missionary Baptist Church of Memphis, Tennessee, and the singing of the song “We Shall Overcome.”

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