In many ways, the world is moving faster than ever before, but people are moving less and less.
That’s part of the reason the BVI Olympic Committee started hosting an annual sports festival in observance of Olympic Day.
This year’s festival, which was the fourth, was held on Saturday with free events across the territory.
The observance got under way at the A.O. Shirley Recreation Grounds in Road Town with BVIOC First Vice President Sabinah Clement encouraging everyone to “to learn, move and discover.”
There were plenty of opportunities to do just that throughout the day, with 14 activity stations hosted by national sports federations and the BVI Heritage Dancers.
At the Road Town grounds, attendees played basketball, learned archery, did martial arts, rode bikes and played other sports.
Similar activities were held at the Virgin Gorda Recreation Ground and on Jost Van Dyke.
Rise in diseases
The festival was designed in large part to highlight the importance of physical activity and proper nutrition as ways to address the rise of non-communicable diseases in the territory, organisers said.
“In the BVI, we have an unacceptably high number of people suffering from non-communicable diseases,” BVIOC President Ephraim Penn told the Beacon. “Physical activity is proven to help prevent and combat this.”
Other activities on Saturday included walks on Virgin Gorda and Jost Van Dyke.
“These walks were a reminder of the simple and pleasant way that anyone can fit the activity in to their schedule on a daily basis,” Mr. Penn said.
Federations
Participating national federations included the Virgin Islands Archery Association; the BVI Athletics Association; the BVI Basketball Federation in collaboration with Milton McClean; the BVI Cycling Federation; the BVI Rugby Football Union; the Royal BVI Yacht Club; the VI Softball/Baseball Association; the BVI Squash Rackets Association; the Boynes Taekwondo Academy; the BVI Triathlon Federation; and the VI Volleyball Association.