JE­JU, South Ko­rea — The Caribbean Adap­tive Sports Al­liance (CASA) has re­turned from a sev­en-day vis­it to South Ko­rea with a new vi­sion for the de­vel­op­ment of para sport across the Caribbean, af­ter wit­ness­ing first­hand one of the world’s most struc­tured para-sport sys­tems.

CASA Chair­man Mar­tin Jack­man called the vis­it an “eye-open­er” that has opened fresh pos­si­bil­i­ties for the re­gion. The sev­en-mem­ber Caribbean del­e­ga­tion was host­ed by the Ko­rea Par­a­lympic Com­mit­tee (KPC), toured ma­jor para-sport fa­cil­i­ties, held talks with Ko­re­an sports of­fi­cials and at­tend­ed events at the 46th Na­tion­al Para Games in Je­ju City.

For Jack­man, the trip of­fered a rare look at how a high­ly or­gan­ised para-sport net­work can op­er­ate when gov­ern­ment, busi­ness and sport­ing or­gan­i­sa­tions work to­geth­er.

“Ex­po­sure and the con­ver­sa­tions we had with the Pres­i­dent of the Ko­rea Par­a­lympic Com­mit­tee have opened a world of new op­por­tu­ni­ties for CASA and Caribbean para sport,” Jack­man said.

One of the main high­lights was a tour of the Icheon Na­tion­al Train­ing Cen­tre, led by KPC pres­i­dent Jin Owan Jung. Jack­man said the del­e­ga­tion was struck by the scale of the fa­cil­i­ty and the ser­vices avail­able to ath­letes.

“We got a chance to see the vast­ness of the para-sport ac­tiv­i­ties,” he said. “There are 31 sports, and each has a spe­cif­ic fa­cil­i­ty with coach­es and sup­port staff. That is an amaz­ing train­ing cen­tre. It has every­thing an ath­lete de­sires.”

The del­e­ga­tion al­so dis­cussed ways for Caribbean ath­letes and of­fi­cials to ac­cess Ko­re­an fa­cil­i­ties, ex­per­tise and de­vel­op­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties. CASA Sec­re­tary Melvin Mack­in­tosh said the vis­it pre­sent­ed the Caribbean with an im­por­tant chal­lenge.

“For CASA and the Caribbean, the chal­lenge now is to de­ter­mine what el­e­ments of that sys­tem we can adapt to our own re­al­i­ties—and be­gin build­ing our own ver­sion of that fu­ture,” Mack­in­tosh said.

He was es­pe­cial­ly im­pressed by Icheon’s spe­cialised ser­vices, in­clud­ing med­ical treat­ment and in­jury man­age­ment, as well as sports sci­ence and re­search pro­grams de­signed to im­prove para-ath­lete per­for­mance.

The vis­it al­so strength­ened ties be­tween CASA and the KPC. Glen­da Thoma­sia, Pres­i­dent of the Aru­ba Par­a­lympic Com­mit­tee, and De­bra Bi­lal Atu, pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Par­a­lympic Com­mit­tee of Guyana, ex­pressed op­ti­mism about a pos­si­ble Mem­o­ran­dum of Un­der­stand­ing be­tween the two bod­ies.

They said such an agree­ment could boost net­work­ing, knowl­edge ex­change and prac­ti­cal co­op­er­a­tion be­tween the Caribbean and South Ko­rea.

At the 46th Na­tion­al Para Games, the CASA del­e­ga­tion saw more than 5,000 ath­letes from 17 cities and provinces com­pete in 31 sports at 36 venues.

The Caribbean vis­i­tors watched ath­let­ics, goal­ball, boc­cia and ta­ble ten­nis, and even took part in medal pre­sen­ta­tions dur­ing the ath­let­ics com­pe­ti­tion at Je­ju World Cup Sta­di­um.

The Games of­fered more than high-lev­el com­pe­ti­tion. They showed how para sport can be in­te­grat­ed in­to a coun­try’s wider sport­ing struc­ture and staged as a ma­jor na­tion­al event.

An­oth­er key take­away was the role of Ko­re­an busi­ness­es in sup­port­ing para sport. Jack­man not­ed that Ko­re­an com­pa­nies back in­di­vid­ual ath­letes and teams while al­so con­tribut­ing to the broad­er de­vel­op­ment of the move­ment.

He high­light­ed BDH Chair­man Bae Dong Hyun as an out­stand­ing ex­am­ple of cor­po­rate com­mit­ment.

“He is a per­fect mod­el for oth­ers to fol­low,” Jack­man said. “His com­pa­ny em­ploys para-ath­letes, and his gen­eros­i­ty to the Par­a­lympic move­ment is not lim­it­ed to his coun­try. He sees oth­er na­tions as an ex­tend­ed fam­i­ly.”

The del­e­ga­tion met with Bae, who ex­pressed strong in­ter­est in help­ing de­vel­op the Par­a­lympic move­ment in the Caribbean.

At a farewell break­fast host­ed by KPC Pres­i­dent Jin Owan Jung, CASA mem­bers thanked the Ko­rea Par­a­lympic Com­mit­tee for its warmth and hos­pi­tal­i­ty.

The CASA del­e­ga­tion in­clud­ed Mar­tin Jack­man (CASA Pres­i­dent and Vice Pres­i­dent, Par­a­lympic As­so­ci­a­tion of Bar­ba­dos), Melvin Mack­in­tosh (CASA Sec­re­tary and Sec­re­tary, Suri­name Par­a­lympic Com­mit­tee), and Na­tion­al Par­a­lympic Com­mit­tee Pres­i­dents Glen­da Thoma­sia (Aru­ba), Ray Roberts (Grena­da), De­bra Bi­lal Atu (Guyana), Christo­pher Samu­da (Ja­maica) and Micky Ruben (Trinidad & To­ba­go).

CMC