Most awesome! They are the words that overwhelm me when trying to sum up in one phrase the efforts of everyone concerned with Bermuda’s hosting of the 41st Carifta Games at the National Sports Centre.National spirits were at a high throttle as the opening ceremonies got under way on Good Friday night and when the Games culminated spectacularly on Easter Monday night. It evidently was a flawless event. All positive with nothing but praise for a job exceedingly well done, meriting superlative accolades for both Team Bermuda and their 500 or more counterparts visiting from some 26 nations.Without doubt, the Carifta Games bring to the fore the brightest and best junior athletes who historically have gone on to win medals at Olympic Games, the World Championships, and other regional and international championships.While what we witnessed was absolutely spectacular I feel obligated to help take our minds back 40 years and reflect on how Carifta all began.First of all we must pay homage to the Founding Fathers of the Track and Field Association (BTFA). We thank the late Randolph (Randy) Benjamin, the first president of the BTFA; Earl (Gabby) Hart; Charles Jeffers; Hyacinth Smith; the late Beverley Jones and Patricia (Pat ) Lake; late Berwyn Cann; and above all, the late Clive Long, former national coach.Somehow or the other the foregoing were all my personal friends who capitalised on the ready media access they had because of my strategic position as Station Manager and News Director of the Radio and Television Stations of the old (Monty Sheppard) Capital Broadcasting Company, that revolutionised broadcasting in Bermuda during the 1960s and ‘70s onwards.It was the absolute dedication and foresight of the Founding Fathers that laid the foundations for track and field over the last 40 years in Bermuda. And I know that many others connected with those ‘back-in-the day’ progenitors are intimately connected with the BTFA today.Over the past four decades a host of dedicated young Bermudians have profited immeasurably under the auspices of the BTFA. Their first contingent of athletes competed in the Central American and Caribbean Games in Kingston, Jamaica in July 1971. The team included Carlsen Philip, my own son; Jay Kempe, Branwen Smith and Jerry Swan.The Inaugural Carifta Games took place in Bridgetown, Barbados in 1972. It was our very own Branwen Smith whose name is permanently etched in the Carifta annals, because she was the first Gold Medalist-ever, at those Inaugural Games in 1972, in Barbados. She came home for the past week’s games, from her job as Athletics Director at a University in Massachusetts.During the decade of the 1970s there were dozens of Bermudian athletes who were successful in securing athletic and academic scholarships from prominent colleges and universities throughout the United States. At the height of this programme there were a total of 36 athletes matriculating at the colleges and universities.The majority of those former athletes and students successfully graduated in their respective disciplines which included dentistry, law, business administration, education, nursing, and law enforcement. One notable feature is that during that particular programme the number of scholarships they earned superseded the number of scholarships offered locally by the Bermuda Government and other private local scholarship sources.And another most ironic feature as to the status of all those historical achievements is that it was all accomplished in the absence of proper training facilities. For the first two decades the athletes had to train on a grass surface. The current national sports facility did not exist.Against all odds, the local athletes were able to set national records in every event in which they participated. Also, they were able to secure competitions primarily by travelling to the East Coast of the US to compete in track meets such as the Maryland Relays, the Florida Relays, and the Penn Relays.In the absence of financial support of the Government of the day Bermuda’s athletes had to undertake fundraising drives such as walkathons, car washes, or through the generous patronage of private donors and, of course, their families. To their great credit, in their quest to achieve prominence, the lack of training facilities did not dampen or weaken their enthusiasm. Many of them were successful in securing international eminence both collegiately in the US and on the world stage of international athletics.Readily coming to mind is Mike Sharpe, whose ambition from a youngster was to be a journalist. He was ambitious. His name was almost a household word, because of his medal-winning performances in the Games Bermuda hosted in 1975. He was given a job in my ZFB Newsroom when he first presented himself and was super.Other young rising stars were Calvin Dill, Gregory (Ribs) Simons, my young cousin from Somerset; Robert Moulder, Dennis Trott, Clarke Godwin, Debbie Jones Hunter, Clarance (Nicky) Saunders, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist; Steve Burgess, who paired with Mike Sharpe on the VSB team broadcasting live internationally the recent Games.Other eminent BTFA athletes were Anthony Philip, another of my sons, a spectacular triple-jumper who went to stardom at Seaton Hall University. (Anthony’s son Ethan Philip was a triple-jumper on 2012 Team Bermuda); Vaughn Harvey, and Renalda Swan now living in Florida.Most if not all were former Olympians or participants in Commonwealth Games and other major World Championships. And as I stated earlier, many of them are actively involved in the organisation and facilitation of track and field in Bermuda.Most notable amongst them, of course, is Donna Bean Watson, the current BTFA president, who demonstrated during the 2012 Games she’s a great executive, superb organiser and first-class communicator.Also still prominently involved are Stanley Douglas, former BFTA president; Mike Watson, Brian Dowling, Norbert Simons, who is now Director of Government’s Youth and Sports Department, as well as Calvin Simons, Nicky Saunders. who was awarded an MBE for his contributions to sports; and Brian Wellman, triple-jumper, our national coach for the 2012 Games.Before any of the 500-odd athletes formally entered the National Sports Centre, last week Bermuda’s Sonia Smith was introduced and presented for a singular salute and stroll around the track to the cheers of the crowds for having the longest standing Carifta record, a javelin gold medal, set in 1979.There’s no doubt we have come a long way in the development of track and field in Bermuda and we look forward with high hopes and expectations to the young athletes who got their baptism of fire in the past week’s Games; and as the BTFA as it focuses on the 2013 Games in the Bahamas.That should be a ‘piggy’ because the event will be in tandem with that country’ celebration of the 40th year of its sovereign Independence.