By Dean Greenaway

Note: This is the first of a two part series on track and field in the BVI

The International Association of Athletic Federations on Tuesday presented BVI Amateur Athletics Association president Rey O’Neal its veterans pin, for his contribution to the development of track and field in the territory and the region over the last 33 years.

O’Neal, a founding member of the BVIAAA in 1970, was joined by Aruba’s Harry Jansen and Cuba’s Lazaro Batencourt as the Central American and Caribbean region’s recipients of the IAAF veterans pin.

“The IAAF veterans pin is an award that’s given to people who are deemed to have contributed over on extended period of time to the sport of track and field in their respective countries or their respective areas,” O’Neal said.  
The award is the brainchild of the late IAAF president Italian Primo Nebiolo when he became president in 1987. The award is presented every two years, coinciding with the World Athletics Championships which begins in Paris Saturday and runs through August 31.

O’Neal said several of his regional counterparts who have been around for a while have received the award. These include: Barbados’ Ester Maynard; Bahamas’ Bernard Nottage, one of the early presidents of the CAC; Puerto Rico’s Victor Lopez, Jamaica’s Herb McKenley and the Cayman Islands’ Evelyn Rockett.  “There have not been many from the smaller OECS territories,” O’Neal said. “I’m only the second with St. Vincent’s Keith Joseph being the first.”

O’Neal is a founding member of the BVIAAA formed in 1970. He guided its membership in the IAAF in 1972 and has been president since 1978. 
When asked what the award means to him O’Neal who has guided the sport and the development of athletes who have competed at the Olympic Games and World Championships levels said; “It does show that your efforts have been recognized by your colleagues and counterparts in the other countries in the region. I think it’s not only an honor for me, but it’s an honor for the system we’ve tried to develop here in the British Virgin Islands.”

O’Neal is also a founding member of the BVI Olympic Committee which was formed in 1980 and served as its first president from 1980-84. He was reelected in 1989 and has been at the helm ever since. He is a member of the Association of Track and Field Statisticians, former chairman of the Caribbean and Central American Technical Committee and was reelected as a floor member in December 2002. O’Neal is a member of the OECS Athletics Commission and an international correspondent for Track and Field News.

Reflecting on the early days, O’Neal said while facilities are by no means what he would like to have, an area on Wichams Cay II laid out with conduit pipes for training purposes. “The High School Championships up to 1970 were held on a 200 meter track at the Old Recreation Grounds which is now the softball field,” he noted. “When we moved to what is now the A. O. Shirley Recreation Grounds, there was a 300 meter track until 1986 when it was extended to 400 meters. There were some pretty good performances there, the most memorable of them was when Guy Hill ran 21.9 seconds over 200 meters. No one has ever come close to that in the annuals of the BVI High School Championships.”