This year, participants in the National Inter-school Athletics Championship, which will take place this Saturday at the Stad Linite, will have one more cup to compete for. This is the Health Champions Cup, a joint Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education initiative, which aims to reward the school which has done the most towards maintaining good health practices. The initiative also forms part of the ongoing anti-obesity campaign that the two ministries are collaborating on.
“We want to recognise the efforts which the schools have put in towards best health practices. As we are all aware, it takes a lot of preparation to get the athletes ready for competition, and in regard to health, there are some good practices which we would like to see inculcated into our children from a very young age. So, this cup will serve as a motivation for the schools to promote and maintain good health practices as well as reward those who are doing this during this competition,” Dr. Vanessa, from the Ministry of Health, told the media in an interview this afternoon.
There will be three cups under this award, one for each category: primary schools, secondary schools and post-secondary institutions. Dr. Verenne Louis-Marie from the Ministry of Health explained that there will be a team of assessors who will be going around the venue, assessing each school present on five different criteria.
Generally, the criteria will be looking at the physical preparation of the athletes, such as injury prevention, where we will be looking to see if the students are wearing the appropriate running shoes, if they are doing warm-up exercises to prepare their muscles and prevent injury, amongst other aspects. We will also be assessing the ways they rehydrate their athletes, if they are drinking water and the different things which they will be eating on the day, because as we know, nutrition is important and especially during the anti-obesity campaign which has been ongoing since last October.”
She added that team spirit and the mental well-being of the athletes will be another criterion.
“We want to see how the athletes support one another, how they keep their morale up and if there is unity in the teams. This year we will be focusing mostly on the athletes themselves and using what we learn from this experience, later we will be able to widen the scope to look at other aspects of the competition in the future.”
In regards to how to assess the nutrition aspect, nutritionist Stephanie Desnousse said that they have developed a form which would guide the assessors along and that additionally, there is the tuck shop guidelines applicable to all schools, which the assessors will also use to evaluate the nutrition which the children have either brought from home or which the schools have provided. Additionally, we will be assessing how the food they consume will help them with recovery during the day, as some may have more than one event to participate in, and they must eat the right things, which will help them get through the day.”
Ms. Patricia Saminadin from the Ministry of Education said that on their side, they have all along been driving it home to the physical education teachers that the athletes need to be constantly well hydrated throughout the day, as it is very hot at the stadium.
