Over two hundred Belizean student athletes and officials are part of a contingent who will be in El Salvador this week, where they will be joined by contingents from Panama, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala and host country El Salvador in the XVI Central American Scholar Sports Games. The Games are organized by CODICADER (Central American Council for Sports and Recreation), an arm of SICA (Central American Integration System).
The CODICADER Games run from September 4 to 14, and Belize is represented by champion school teams of the National Secondary Schools Sports Association (NSSSA) competitions as well as by national NSSSA selections in the sports of Track & Field, Chess and Karate. Participating athletes must be 17 years old or younger, “born in the year 1994 or after”.
High school champions representing Belize in basketball are (Female) Gwen Lizarraga High and (Male) Sadie Vernon Technical High; in football (Female) Sacred Heart College and (Male) Corozal Community College; in volleyball (Female) St. Catherine’s Academy and (Male) Toledo Community College; and in softball, Nazarene High School.
Some teams are already in El Salvador. Our football, karate and chess delegations should have departed Belize on Friday, September 2; athletics left on Saturday, September 3; volleyball and basketball are leaving today, Monday, September 5; and softball are scheduled to leave on Wednesday, September 7.
Chief of Mission to the Games, NSSSA President Deon Sutherland today reported that “Belize won its first gold and silver medals today in athletics. Jervis Myvett from EPYHS won gold in the 100m with a time of 11:28. His qualifying time was 11:19. Gloria Serano from PHS won silver in the shotput with a distance of 10.54m.”
Sutherland promised to keep us updated on results as the Games progress.