‘Boxing and wrestling are fundamental’

Boxing and wrestling are avenues to battle deviance in Barbados. This from Minister of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment, Dwight Sutherland, as he spoke recently during a visit to the Grantley Adams International Airport.

There to greet and see off a team from the Barbados Wrestling Association who were heading to Mexico for the Pan American Junior and Cadet Championships in Mexico, Minister Sutherland said that both disciplines were important towards the development of values in our young people. Citing the situation of professional British boxer, Anthony Joshua, who overcame a challenging environment to make it to the top of the game, Sutherland noted that boxing had the potential to catapult the island’s young people to similar heights.

“For me, boxing is fundamental if we’re to address some of the deviant behaviours – within the schools especially – and to give these young men the alternative view, which is the right way of taking out their anger in a sport. But more importantly, this sport can give you the opportunity to earn a living and to become world-class. And that is our mission and our mandate as a government,” he said.

Going on to draw a similar parallel to wrestling, Sutherland stated that sport continues to play a pivotal role in ensuring that opportunity was available for all Barbadians.

“Wrestling is fundamental as well because you see a young man here from the Learning Centre, we have persons from Parkinson, Daryll Jordan – these are persons from the newer secondary schools who have the opportunity to become world-class citizens. They may not be academic, they may not be engineers, but we are making sure that we are not leaving any single individual behind. All opportunities – whether through sports, whether through developmental programmes within the Ministry of the Youth – we are there for our young people,” he said.

Going on to say that physical activity had its place in combating mental health issues, obesity and the pervasion of non-communicable diseases, Minister Sutherland said that he believed that most of the island’s young people should be engaged in some kind of development programme to ensure the prosperity of our society.

“We have about 60,000 young people in this country and I believe that four out of every five living young persons should be enrolled in some sporting, some developmental activity or some youth group. That is the only way we will begin to solve some of our challenges and we have to bring back community sports. That is the next thing I will be focusing on.” (MP)