Government’s decision to restrict contact sports has forced the T&T Power Boat Association (TTPBA) to postpone the 2020 Great Race event. The 51st edition of the event was due to speed off on Saturday with an estimated 26 boats challenging each other in six classes over a distance of 104 miles from Williams Bay in Chaguaramas to Store Bay, Tobago.
However, immediately following the Prime Minister’s announcement which included rolling back contact sports for the next 28 days, the T&T Power Boats Association (TTPBA) posted an update on its Facebook page stating, “Great Race has officially been postponed. We are working on setting a new date later this year. Based on the press conference by the government on Saturday (today) with the new restrictions the race must be postponed. As soon as we have a new tentative date for the 2020 Great Race it will be posted.”
TTPBA president Marcus Gomez told the Guardian Media Sports in an immediate reaction that, “It’s a difficult decision because we were looking forward to it and we were getting everything ready for next weekend, but we support the government’s decision. It’s very difficult times we are in and we want everybody including our racers and everybody associated with the race to be safe so in the interest of that we decided we would postpone.”
Gomez said a tentative date will be set in the coming days as the situation unfolds and more information is gathered. He went on to say, “I don’t have any dates in mind as yet but probably next week we’ll release a tentative date. It’s for 28 days they have these restrictions in place for so we’ll probably look for something soon after that 28 days and then, of course, we will monitor the situation throughout.”
Asked whether he is optimistic the race will go off this year given the challenges if the pandemic continues to be present, Gomez responded, “Put it this way, Great Race has never not happened. It has been postponed in the past but I’m staying positive that we will still have a Great Race.”
The Great Race can lay claim to being the longest-running offshore powerboat event in the world, having not missed a beat since it blasted off in 1969. .
Gomez said the race is a significant event on the sporting calendar in T&T and attracts attention outside our borders. As such he went on to say, “I think it’s very important that we have a Great Race. The racers look forward to it, Trinidad and Tobago and all the racing fans internationally do look forward to it, but we are in different times now and safety really is the priority at this time.”
Between 25 to 27 boats were scheduled to take the starter's gun this year as registration closed on Tuesday, August 11. Gomez says plans will continue for the event which is set to include a live stream of the race as spectators won’t be allowed to watch it due to the pandemic.
The latest COVID-19 update from the Ministry of Health as at 6 pm yesterday showed 348 active cases from 497 positive tests, with 10 deaths and 139 persons discharged.