ROSEAU, Do­mini­ca-New­ly elect­ed ath­let­ics chief Cedric Har­ris says he will be fo­cus­ing on the over­all de­vel­op­ment of the sport here dur­ing his two-year tenure, and be­lieves he has the right peo­ple around him to ac­com­plish the job. The for­mer Olympian was elect­ed to lead the Do­mini­ca Am­a­teur Ath­let­ics As­so­ci­a­tion last week­end at the An­nu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing, re­plac­ing God­win Dorsette who did not seek re-elec­tion. "I feel the ex­ec­u­tive is well bal­anced with knowl­edge, skills, ex­pe­ri­ence and youth," he said. "I think that we have the right for­mu­la for cre­at­ing an ex­plo­sion of change for the bet­ter. "I am ready and will­ing to put my knowl­edge and ex­pe­ri­ence in­to work for the de­vel­op­ment of ath­let­ics in Do­mini­ca." Wat­son Pac­quette will serve as the vice pres­i­dent while Ar­ling­ton Bur­ton, the man Har­ris de­feat­ed for the pres­i­den­cy, is the new sec­re­tary.

Lyn­son Lynch and Smith Telemacque will serve as trea­sur­er and as­sis­tant sec­re­tary/trea­sur­er re­spec­tive­ly. Re­tired sports of­fi­cer and ath­let­ics coach, Em­manuel Loblack re­tained his po­si­tion as the pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer. Har­ris said he be­lieved the new­ly formed ex­ec­u­tive was ready to take ath­let­ics to the next lev­el. "I like the com­bi­na­tion as it brings a lot to the ta­ble. We can make pos­i­tive changes to­wards the over­all de­vel­op­ment of ath­let­ics in Do­mini­ca," he ex­plained. "Mar­ket­ing is high on the agen­da as well as a fo­cus on the grass roots lev­el. "For too long we have been pay­ing lip ser­vice to the sport. I will break the sta­tus quo and im­ple­ment changes that are need­ed. "We need to find av­enues and op­por­tu­ni­ties for our ath­letes. We have very tal­ent­ed ath­letes and we must help them and nur­ture that tal­ent." (CMC)