BELIZE CITY, Mon. July 26, 2021– We received an email from the Belize Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (BOCGA) last Thursday afternoon, July 22, after we had gone to press, so we will just share some of the still relevant information from that release with our readers:
At “the Tokyo Olympic Games, Team Belize is set to compete in Athletics and Canoe.
“The XXXII Olympiad is scheduled to take place from July 23-August 8, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan.
“Team Belize is comprised of athletes, Samantha Dirks, Shaun Gill and Amado Cruz. They will compete in Athletics – 400m, Athletics – 100m; and Canoe Sprint K1 200m & K1 1000m, respectively. The officials are Deon Sutherland – Athletics, Elvin Penner and Foad Buchta Mohamed – Canoe, Herman Pastor Jr. – Chief of Mission, and Allan Sharp – Secretary General Belize NOC.
“Tokyo has strict measures in place considering the current Covid situation…
“The athletics delegation arrived in Tokyo on July 19 and are currently at a training camp in Tachikawa, organized by Panam Sports…
“Team Belize (was) represented at the opening ceremony by the three athletes, the BAA president, Deon Sutherland, and Chief of Mission, Herman Pastor Jr. Shaun Gill and Samantha Dirks were nominated as flag bearers for the Belize delegation. This is the first time that Belize (had) two flag bearers at the opening ceremony. This comes as a recent policy change from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to allow each country to have one male and one female flag bearer to promote gender equality.
“The tentative competition schedule, local time, is as follows: Shaun will compete on Saturday, July 31, at 4:45 a.m. (heat 1); Samantha on Tuesday, August 2, at 6:45 p.m. (heat 1); and Amado on Monday, August 1, at 7:20 p.m. (heat 1) in the K1 1000m and on Wednesday, August 3, at 6:30 p.m. in the K1 200m.
“For the Closing Ceremony on August 8, Amado Cruz will be the flag bearer and will be accompanied by the two canoe officials and the Chief of Mission.
“Athletics delegation will depart Tokyo on August 3 and 7, while the rest of the delegation will depart on August 9.
“All the best to Team Belize!”