Sensei Peter Warren is the latest recipient of the prestigious 7th Dan (Shichidan) Black belt. He was promoted to the rank at the 42nd Annual International Shotokan Karate Federation (ISKF) Master Camp held in Philadelphia from June 6-13.

Honduras 2 - Puerto Rico 2
Suriname 1 - Guyana 0
Grenada 2 - Costa Rica 2
Guatemala 6 - St. Lucia 0
Jamaica 7 - Bahamas 0
St. Vincent and the Grenadines 0 - Canada 3
Barbados 0 - USA 8
Trinidad & Tobago 1 - Bermuda 2

With strikes in each half from Omar Shakir and Damon Ming, Bermuda overcame a more highly ranked Barbados squad in a soccer friendly at their National Sports Center. Barbados was able to pull one back from their captain Norman Forde. The teams were using the match as a warm up to a very tough CONCACAF qualifying round later this month. Barbados is ranked 121st in the world and Bermuda is ranked 139th.

Arguably one of Barbados’ most prominent footballers, Victor “Gas” Clarke has died. Clarke passed away yesterday morning at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, he was 65 years old. He leaves to mourn a wife, a son and a daughter.

Clarke is best remembered for representing Barbados in it’s football squad from 1961-1977. Rated as one of the best footballers to have come out of the Caribbean, Clarke had 59 national caps and after his retirement went on to coach at the National Sport Council.

“He was very passionate in what he did and that was football. He never wavered in his duties and he was loved by all.” said Adrian Donovan (Assistant Director of Sports)

The Barbados Olympic Committee with the help of the International Olympic Committee has unveiled its new US$1.1 million facility. On hand for the unveiling were Jacques Rogge, IOC president and Dr. Esther Byer-Suckoo, the Barbados Sports Minister.

The facility will accommodate office space for the Barbados Olympic Association, a museum as well as house the Barbados Sports Medicine Association, the regional Anti Doping Organization and the regional Volleyball Development Center.

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FAYETTEVILLE, USA: Despite not finishing amongst the medalist in their respective events, Barbadians Seidre Forde and Shernelle Nicholls set national records at last weekend’s NCAA division I indoor championships at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, AR.

Forde, a junior at the University of Louisville, jumped 13.24m to set a triple jump record for her native Barbados and in the process became the first woman from her school to advance to the finals of an event at the NCAA Indoor Championships. She also improved her own Louisville school record in the process, but could
only finish in 10th place.

Also in this event, Jamaica’s Kimberly Williams of Florida State won the second flight of two and finished second overall behind Erica McLain with a jump of 13.82m. Williams’ was the longest triple jump performance in the school’s history

Meanwhile, Shernelle Nicholls, a four-time national champion in the women’s shot put, improved her own national record in the event when finishing 6th on the weekend.

Nicholls, on her 5th throw, tossed the shot to a school record mark of 16.71m and earned her second overall All-American honour.

Friday was a “hill and gully ride” for Brandon Burke. Although he was defeated in the singles quarter finals by American Abrielle Flores (6-3, 6-4), his campaign in the doubles continues in the semi finals.

He and Darian Clarke of Barbados defeated Nick Rowlands of Great Britain and Jarret Brasseaux of the United States 4-6, 7-6, 7-5. They then posted a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 win over Octavio Parim of Brazil and Ian Urigyen of Guatemala. This set them up to face Americans Greg Vlaimersky and Ric Rappicioli in the semi-final.

After an impassioned plea by its members to the Caribbean Netball Association and the Americas Federation of Netball Association, Guyana is finally getting some much needed assistance to get their program back on track. Annette Becket, veteran Barbadian netball administrator, is on her way back from a trip to Guyana in an effort to assess the state of affairs in that country re netball. Speaking with the Barbados Advocate, she said the month long trip allowed her to realize certain key deficiencies within the program and ways and means of getting the program back on the right track. In a quote from her:

“The sport was, at that point, in a fledgling stage, so while starting from scratch was not necessary, items like the GNAs constitution and their strategic plan needed to be reworked.”

As next steps Ms. Beckett stated that apart from those fundamental changes in organization, the GNA will attempt to organize tours of other Caribbean territories so as to gain greatly needed competition-level experience.

The 12th Special Olympics World Summer Games is now underway in Shanghai China and Barbados has registered its first set of medals. Through the heroics of Mario McAllister, ho placed first in the 50 meters and 100meters free style events in the pool. Elise Newman was also on the podium by gaining a bronze in the women’s 50 meter free event. Get more details here.

The Olympic qualifiers are now on for Women’s soccer in the region. The qualifiers thus far have yielded some rather interesting results, the most astounding ones being the Cuban victory over the British Virgin Islands - 21:0 and the Trinidad and Tobago win over St. Vincent and the Grenadines - 9:0. Get more of these fabulous results here.