JOA president takes up Centro Caribe Sports VP post
Published:Thursday | October 26, 2023 | 12:07 AMOrane Buchanan/Staff Reporter
PRESIDENT OF the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA), Christopher Samuda, is now second vice-president of the Centro Caribe Sports Committee (CCS), following Monday’s General Assembly in Santiago, Chile.
Samuda, along with the pair of Roberto Richards from Cuba and Venezuelan Maria Jose Soto Gil, will work under the leadership of President Luis Mejia Oviedo from the Dominican Republic, who was re-elected for the upcoming five-year term.
Samuda said he is proud of his latest appointment and is pleased to now be part of the CCS family and take on the role of helping to advance sports in the Caribbean.
“I’m proud to be a Jamaican. My opponent was the secretary general of the Mexican Olympic Committee (Mario Alphonso Garcia de la Torre) and, in a vote of confidence, I won 33 to 6. I’m proud to now hold the fort on behalf of Jamaica but, also, I’m a regionalist and I have to think in terms of the Caribbean’s advancement as well as the CCS family,” said Samuda.
The Centro Caribe Sports organisation, founded in 1960, is a regional sports federation which oversees the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games.
Samuda said he hopes his presence on the body will only add to the already established CCS, and envisions the growth of the organisation, not only on a regional but a worldwide level.
“I hope that I’ll be able to make a positive impact on the Central American and Caribbean Games. As vice-president, I’ll be chairman of the legal and marketing commission and we’ve already established a legal and governance framework, which I know will serve the organisation well, and I’ll be advancing the interest of the Central Caribe Sports organisation and promote it as a commercially viable growing council. As we know, there has to be a financial basis on which programmes will be carried out, so I hope to put the CCS not only on the regional, but on the global map,” he said.
To start, Samuda wants to make the CAC Games more attractive.
“One of the objectives that we have, which is a primary objective, is to reposition the Central American and Caribbean Games to make it far more attractive than it is now. That is our primary asset and we have to ensure that it not only serves the organisation from a financial point, but promote it as an opportunity for athletes to excel on the field of play. So we’ll be looking at the CAC Games closely and, as chairman of the marketing commission, I have to ensure that the objectives are met.”