Six To Represent Grenada at CYG in Pune

Thursday October 2nd, 2008 – A team of six competitors and three officials will represent Grenada at the Third Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) in Pune, India from October 12-18.

The team, which leaves here on Wednesday October 8th, comprises of four athletes and two swimmers. World Junior 400 metres silver medalist Kirani James headlines the team which also includes Rondell Bartholomew, Melika Lewis, Antonia Wilson, Esau Simpson and Sophia Noel. James and Bartholomew will compete in the 200 and 400m while Lewis competes in the 100 and 200m and Wilson in the 800 and 1500m. The two swimmers will be involved in four individual events. Simpson competes in the 50, 100 and 200m Freestyle as well as the 50m Butterfly. Noel splashes in the 50, 100, and 200m Backstroke and the 50m Freestyle. Lucy Steele is the chef de mission with Bruce Swan and Natalie Regis as track and field and swimming coaches respectively. Background: Around 1800 athletes and officials will be in Pune for the Games, competing in nine sports – athletics, badminton, boxing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, tennis, weightlifting and wrestling. All sports are on the 2010 Commonwealth Games programme in Delhi. Director General of the Pune CYG committee, Lt. General (Rtd) Ashok Kapur, said a special welcoming ceremony is planned for the 1300 competing athletes on October 11, focusing on Maharashtra’s rich cultural heritage, and that Pune’s school children would play an active part in ‘adopting’ and supporting one of the competing nations during the Games. ‘Bond Forever’ is the school programme initiated by CYG Pune 2008 that involves 71 schools in the city. Each school is learning about the culture, customs, cuisine and climate of one of the Commonwealth countries. “The children are all excited about the Games and are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the contingent from the country they are studying,” Kapur said. “These schools will also be cheering for their respective Commonwealth Nations during the Games.’’ Around 1300 elite young sportsmen and women from all 71 Commonwealth countries and territories will gather in Pune, making it the biggest assembly of 18 and under sporting talent at an international multi-sport event. The carnival will also be a forerunner to the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games. At the inaugural 2000 Commonwealth Youth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland, 15 countries were represented by 733 athletes. Four years later, when Bendigo in Australia hosted the second edition of the Games, 980 athletes competed under the banner of 22 countries. Among the bigger Commonwealth nations in Pune, Australia has entered a team of 102 athletes across the nine programme sports: athletics, badminton, boxing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, tennis, weightlifting and wrestling. England will have just over 80 competitors in its team and will also field athletes in all nine disciplines, while Canada, sending an official CYG team for the first time, will be represented by 63 athletes and they will compete in seven sports: athletics, badminton, boxing, shooting, table tennis, weightlifting and wrestling.