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Will They Be Legends
Mon, January 26, 2015
This weekend, the Belize Amateur Athletic Association, held its first national championships in 5 years. That's because, among other challenges, the Marion Jones Sporting Complex had been closed for renovations.

7News stopped by to see how the long break affected the top amateur athletes. Here's what the President told us about the level of participation, since the comeback:

Deon Sutherland - President, BAAA
"Today, we have the first day, day one of the national championships for athletics. This event is mandatory. Actually, this is supposed to be our 2014 national championships, but it was postponed in December because of the weather, so we are having it this weekend."

Linford Avila - 1st Place, High Jump
"It all comes down to training, and my coach Stanley Humes and my teammates especially Mark Anderson always pushing me to be better. Actually, my main event is the 100m event - that's my love. On the side sometimes I do the high jump and of course I have to do the 400m for training."

Mark Anderson - 1st Place, 400M
"It is very difficult, because as you know I am an employee for 40 hours out of the week and like I previously mentioned, I don't have a lot of time, but it's mainly for the love of the sport. That's the biggest reason why I do it and because I want to help put Belize on the map. So, stuff like that drives you to continue. And in a sense, being employed sort of forces me to stay in shape, because sitting down in front of a computer all day - you tend to put on a little weight. Knowing that I still want to do this, I just have to do what is necessary to stay in shape and win."

Daniel Ortiz
"How many years have you been a track and field, doing what you love?"

Tricia Flores - 1st Place, 100M, Long Jump
"I think about 20-21 years I've been doing this."

Daniel Ortiz
"As a veteran athlete of track and field, how do you keep at it?"

Tricia Flores - 1st Place, 100M, Long Jump
"In deed it's very difficult, due to the fact that of course, I am a teacher and not only that, I am also studying. I'm a student at Galen University, so what I do, I just come out and train whenever it's possible for me to train."

Deon Sutherland - President, BAAA
"We have 10 of our athletes in the top 10 in Central America. These are the athletes that we are looking at in the next couple of years, at least in terms of the 2020 Olympics. These are the athletes, they are young and they are aggressive in terms of their athletic ability and so we do see a progression in the way our athletes are performing."

We have not received the official results from the Belize Amateur Athletic Association on the winners up to news time.

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