Minister with responsibility for Sports, Senator Adrian Mitchell has given assurances that lands and other incentives promised to local athletes that brought International recognition to Grenada have not gone by the way side.

He gave the assurance last Tuesday at a press conference held at the Ministerial Complex building in the Botanical Gardens, St. George's. Sen. Mitchell was responding to a question posed by this newspaper as to when the ruling New National Party (NNP) administration intends to honour its commitment to those athletes who did the country proud internationally.

The Keith Mitchell-led government is known to have promised financial support as well as land to gold medalist at the just-ended World Indoor Championship, Alleyne Francique and former West Indies Player and Captain of the Windward Island Cricket Team Rawle Lewis.

The Junior Sport Minister admitted that it is not an easy task in some cases to get the appropriate lands to give to the athletes since these lands have to be acquired some times from private owners.

According to Sen. Mitchell, government intends to fulfill the promises made to the ace athletes and that the Ministry of Sports will do what is necessary to meet that commitment.
However, he was unable to give a firm date as to when the handing over of the titlement to the lands will take place.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Sports, Veda Bruno-Victor who also spoke on the issue disclosed that documents for at least one of the athletes earmarked for lands are being prepared at this moment.

Bruno-Victor said that the reason why cricketer Lewis did not receive his titlement earlier is because the State wants the different athletes to be comfortable with the lands they will be receiving and their location. She indicated that in the case of Francique, he is out of the island most of the times and it was up to him to decide where he would want to have the lands.

According to the Permanent Secretary, the ministry would like the public to know that when government makes a promise of incentives to the top athletes, it definitely intedns to follow up on these offers.

However, she said that the process takes time and the Ministry of Sports wants to ensure that these athletes receive the best since the intention is not for them to be located in just any and every where.