Category Archives: Bahamas

A trove of treasure has been discovered in the shipwreck of the 17th century Nuestra Seora de las Maravillas (Our Lady of Wonders) in the Bahamas.

The glittering finds include solid silver bars, a 5-foot, 9-inch long gold chain, in-tact pottery, a gold and emerald pendant, a pearl ring, two glass wine bottles, and a silver sword hilt of the soldier Don Martin de Aranda y Gusmn.

The finds are about to go on display at the new Bahamas Maritime Museum, created by the Government of the Bahamas, and Carl Allen, entrepreneur, explorer, philanthropist, and the founder of Allen Exploration, whose team uncovered the finds.

"When we brought up the oval emerald and gold pendant, my breath caught in my throat. How these tiny pendants survived in these harsh waters, and how we managed to find them, is the miracle of the Maravillas," Allen said in a press release sent to Insider.

Allen Explorations discovered the treasures sttrewn along an eight-mile stretch of the ocean floor.

In the statement, Allen spoke of the "tough history" of the shipwreck, saying it had been "heavily salvaged by Spanish, English, French, Dutch, Bahamian and American expeditions in the 17th and 18th centuries, and blitzed by salvors from the 1970s to early 1990s. Some say the remains were ground to dust."

He also added that "The sea bottom is barren," that "the colorful coral that divers remembered from the 70s is gone, poisoned by ocean acidification and choked by meters of shifting sand. It's painfully sad. Still lying on those dead grey reefs, though, are sparkling finds."

"The ship may have been obliterated by past salvage and hurricanes. But we're convinced there are more stories out there," project marine archaeologist James Sinclair said.

The new Bahamas Maritime Museum will open on August 8.

"For a nation built from the ocean, it's astonishing how little is understood about The Bahamas' maritime links," Dr. Michael Pateman, Director of The Bahamas Maritime Museum, said in the press release.

"Few know that the Indigenous Lucayan peoples, for instance, settled here 1,300 years ago. Or that the whole population, up to 50,000 people was forced out by Spanish guns, made to dive for pearls off Venezuela, and killed off in less than three decades. There was dazzling Old World culture in The Bahamas. The Lucayans, slave trade, pirates, and the Maravillas are core stories we're sharing in the museum."

According to the Bahamas Maritime Museum, the 17th century Nuestra Seora de las Maravillas was a two-deck Spanish galleon that sank on a voyage from the Americas to Spain carrying treasures, both as royal tax and private property.

The ship sank off the Little Bahama Bank on January 4, 1656, after a navigational error. Of the 650 on board, only 45 survived.

The wreck was quickly relocated after the ship sank, and for centuries people have tried their luck to find some of the sunken riches.

Explorer Robert Marx rediscovered the remains in 1972, and salvaged some of what was left. Further remains were salvaged by Herbert Humphreys between 1986 and the early 1990s

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Bahamas: 17th century shipwreck gives up treasure of gold and jewels - Business Insider

In 2013, a group of 52 Atlantic spotted dolphins, driven to migrate by unknown forces, left their home on the Little Bahama Bank in the northern Bahamas. They traveled 100 miles south to the island chain of Bimini, a destination already inhabited by a community of 120 Atlantic spotted dolphins.

When groups of social mammals meet, things can get tense. Run-ins between chimpanzee communities, for instance, are known for their violence. Adult male mammals, especially, are keen to defend territory and access to females.

But for the Atlantic spotted dolphins of Little Bahama Bank and Bimini, the mixing and mingling seems to have gone rather swimmingly, scientists found.

Two teams of researchers published papers recently about the growing dolphin community. Their analyses, unlike the dolphins, were not blended, and offered independent confirmation that dolphins from different groups formed strong bonds in a short time frame. The rare event provides new clues about how these brainy mammals organize their complex societies, and may help predict what may occur if climate change pushes populations together.

Denise Herzing, a marine mammal behavioral biologist at the nonprofit Wild Dolphin Project, and her colleagues watched dolphins on the Little Bahama Bank for almost 30 years and started tracking the 52 dolphins when they left.

We were curious how they were integrating, she said. Its a kind of a natural experiment.

Another team, the Dolphin Communication Project, observed dolphins at Bimini for 20 years. All of a sudden we were seeing so many adults that we didnt know, said Nicole Danaher-Garcia, a behavioral ecologist with the group. She was referring to the dolphins, not the other dolphin researchers, of course.

The aquatic mammals often spend their whole lives forming close bonds within their home group, Dr. Danaher-Garcia said. But at Bimini, they were forming new friendships with strangers in only a year.

Dr. Danaher-Garcias team tracked which dolphins spent time together from 2013 to 2018 and analyzed how individual animals touched each other. A lot of times youll see them rubbing their pectoral fins against one another. It kind of looks like theyre playing patty-cake, she said. A dolphin may rub its forehead on a pals belly, indicating an even stronger bond. You must like them, she said, and if theyre allowing you to do it, they must trust you. Such friendly gestures were common between males from the different groups, the team reported this week in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

The team didnt observe aggression between the newcomers and the original Bimini crew, the kind of conflict often seen in nature when mammal groups merge.

Thats very unusual, Dr. Danaher-Garcia said. Instead, her team saw the animals socializing, playing and getting frisky across original group lines, behavior more akin to that of bonobos.

She said it was possible that like bonobos, they use sexual behaviors to ease the tension. At times, this bacchanal can look like a ball of dolphins. You cant really tell whos touching whom and whats going on, she said.

Like both bonobos and chimpanzees, dolphins live in fission-fusion societies where they make strong bonds between individuals but can break those bonds and forge new ones. This kind of bonding between individuals in different groups is not seen among many mammals, said Diana Reiss, a marine mammal scientist and cognitive psychologist at Hunter College who was not part of either study. To see such social flexibility within groups that didnt previously live together is pretty exciting, Dr. Reiss said.

Dr. Danaher-Garcias team suspects Biminis geography, with ample shallows as well as abundant access to deep water for foraging, makes for more amiable interactions because the dolphins likely dont need to fight over space.

But that doesnt mean it was all frictionless. Dr. Herzings group did see some aggressive behaviors, such as dolphins slapping or ramming heads, that are typical when males fight over mating opportunities. Her group mapped the cetaceans associations from 2015 to 2020 and reported the results last week in the journal Marine Mammal Science. But the fighting that Dr. Herzings team observed is not unusual and can occur within a single group of dolphins.

Dr. Herzings group has yet to publish its analysis of the types of touches that occurred in the newly mixed group. That team stayed on a boat further offshore observing the dolphins over longer days during the summer. In contrast, Dr. Danaher-Garcias project had a limited sample size that was more focused on males, as opposed to males and females, Dr. Herzing said, and might have missed some aggressive encounters.

They probably didnt see aggression, probably because there was nothing to fight over, she added.

There may also be a difference in how the two studies classify what counts as aggression, Dr. Herzing and Dr. Danaher-Garcia noted.

More research is needed to determine if the mixed dolphin groups are becoming more enmeshed through mating. The Wild Dolphin Project, Dr. Herzings team, is getting the scoop on this by collecting dolphin feces and analyzing the genetic material they contain to reveal the dolphins parentage.

Guido J. Parra, a behavioral ecologist at Flinders University who wasnt involved with either study, said there was value in researching these interactions. An understanding of social ties could help reveal how animal groups might respond to environmental change and aid in conservation. Researchers still have a lot to learn about the ecological factors that drive grouping, the role of individuals in shaping a social structure and the costs and benefits of banding together, Dr. Parra said.

That will be important as different dolphin populations may be pushed together. For example, in Bangladesh, rising seas encroached on a land boundary and brought river dolphins into contact with another dolphin species in the ocean, Dr. Herzing said.

We dont know exactly how species are going to fare she said.

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Dolphin Strangers Met in the Bahamas. Things Went Swimmingly. - The New York Times

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The Ohio State basketball team has had a pretty enjoyable week so far this week. Chris Holtmann and the rest of the coaching staff has been doing an excellent job landing recruits for the 2023 recruiting class. Now, the current Buckeye basketball team is in the Bahamas this weekend for a team vacation.

While in the Bahamas they will play in a pair of exhibition games against the Egyptian and Puerto Rican national teams. These exhibition games will be the first piece of action for this rebuilt Buckeye roster.

Chris Holtmann did announce that Justice Sueing and Seth Towns will not play in their exhibition games as they are still trying to get 100% healthy. With those two being out, that means this weekend will be a great opportunity to mix and match some different lineups and see who all plays well with each other.

There are a lot of uncertainties around this Ohio State basketball team heading into the 2022 season. We are going to learn a lot about this team while on their trip to the Bahamas. What are some of the things that we hope to find out about this team after this week of Buckeye basketball?

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What we hope to learn about the Ohio State basketball team during Bahamas trip - Scarlet and Game

NASSAU, Bahamas, Aug. 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Summertime festivities are in full swing in The Bahamas, where a variety of all-new experiences, celebrity performances and lively events across the islands await. Travelers should make sure to check out the many fun summer happenings and hot deals before planning their next trip to The Bahamas.

NEWSLynden Pindling International Airport Reports Strong Tourism Numbers This Summer With preliminary passenger numbers for summer stronger than what they were pre-pandemic in 2019, and in anticipation of busier months ahead, Nassau's Lynden Pindling International Airport encourages travellers to arrive 3 to 3.5 hours ahead of their international flight's scheduled departure time.

Check out the many fun summer happenings and hot deals before planning your next trip to The Bahamas!

Celebrate Bahamian Culture During the Goombay Summer FestivalsThe Bahamas' annual Goombay Summer Festivals will take place across 12 islandsincluding Andros, Long Island and Eleutherain August.

Go Glampingunder the Stars at Atlantis Paradise IslandAtlantis Paradise Island'snewMarine Life Camping Adventureallows guests to sleep in luxury tents at the beach while connecting with marine life on exclusive adventures like kayaking with dolphins andsnorkellingat twilight.

Celebrate Baha Mar's New Partnership with Bruno Mars' SelvaRey Rum Baha Mar will celebrate its new partnership with SelvaRey Rum, a new liquor brand owned by Bruno Mars, with a Labour Day weekend party at SLS Baha Mar from 1 4 September 2022. Tickets to see performances by Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak are open for booking.

The Bahamas Is Listed In Travel + Leisure's 2022 "World's Best Awards" The Bahamas were well represented in Travel + Leisure's 2022 "World's Best Awards" with The Exumas, Harbour Island, and Eleuthera all making it onto the list of "25 Best Islands in the Caribbean, Bermuda and The Bahamas."

The Hurricane Hole Superyacht Marina Reopens After a complete reconstruction, Hurricane Hole Superyacht Marina on Paradise Island has officially reopened, featuring over 6,000 feet of slips, concrete floating docks and a 240-foot turning basin able to accommodate the most luxurious superyachts.

PROMOTIONS AND OFFERSFor a complete list of deals and discounted packages for The Bahamas, visitwww.bahamas.com/deals-packages.

Stay More and Save More at Peace & Plenty Resort Peace & Plenty Resort in The Exumas is offering guests 15% off their stayfor bookings of five nights or more. The offer is valid for travel through 30 September 2022.

Explore Eleuthera with The Cove Eleuthera Newly renovated resort The Cove Eleuthera is offering guests who book a three-night minimum stay a unique package that allows them to immerse themselves into the beauty of the island. The package includes a guided half-day tour of the island, a $200 resort credit and a chef-packed picnic lunch for two. Room rates apply.

ABOUT THE BAHAMASExplore all the islands have to offer atwww.bahamas.com or onFacebook,YouTube orInstagram to see why It's Better in The Bahamas.

PRESS INQUIRIESAnita Johnson-PattyBahamas Ministry of Tourism, Investments & Aviation[emailprotected]

Weber ShandwickPublic Relations[emailprotected]

SOURCE The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, Investments & Aviation

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WHAT'S NEW IN THE BAHAMAS IN AUGUST - PR Newswire

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas will host Caribbean Heads of Government at the Baha Mar resort later this month, Prime Minister Phillip Brave Davis announced yesterday.

The event is scheduled for August 16 and 17.

Prime Minister Davis said the meeting will focus specifically on climate change and allow for regional leaders to come together to lobby for change against the issue.

He also said it will be geared towards establishing a unified Caribbean response to better reflect common geographical and geopolitical issues facing regional states.

This meeting will position the Caribbean region to take control of our fate and present a unified position to the world at COP 27 which will take place in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt in November, Mr Davis said during a press conference at the Office of The Prime Minister yesterday.

The government of The Bahamas intends to establish the meeting as an annual event that will seek to have an institute as a regular meeting on the United Nations Framework and Climate Change Convention.

Ive said repeatedly that what happens in this region doesnt stay in this region. We must take the brains in ending our suffering and replace our position of vulnerability with that power.

It is past time to go on the offensive against the painful blows climate change has landed in the region, but we must be united in the fight and convince the world that for better or worse, we are in this together.

Mr Davis said he expects all countries in the region to participate, adding that he will also be making personal calls to invite Caribbean leaders to the event.

We hope for this to be an annual event, he also said. It might not be hosted by our countries always but it is important and I think that in garnering ourselves up for this fight, we need to have a unified voice in this region.

Since taking office last year, the Prime Minister has been among the leading voices with regards to climate change, often travelling to various countries to attend special conferences to speak about the issue.

He has repeatedly called for multilateral organisations to forgive those debts of small countries that are related to climate change, noting the consequences of natural disasters has added some $5bn to the countrys national debt in over the last several years.

Asked yesterday about the governments progress to advance discussions on the issue, Mr Davis said the country was gathering momentum in that regard.

According to Mr Davis, the conference is being sponsored by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

He said the government will only be responsible for providing security.

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Bahamas to host Caribbean heads of govt meeting - Bahamas Tribune

NC State will lead college basketball in trips to the Bahamas this year with two. The Wolfpack will be down there for the Battle 4 Atlantis over Thanksgiving, and this weekend theyre heading down to play a couple of exhibition games.

Schools are allowed these summer trips every few years, though obviously its been a while since its been possible to take them. This is as good a time as any for the Pack to take advantage of extra practices and start getting this team full of newcomers more comfortable playing together.

Kevin Keatts met with the media to discuss the trip and some other things, including his squads injury situation. Unfortunately, Greg Gantt wont be able to play thanks to a finger injury which Keatts said is likely to keep the forward out for a month. Ernest Ross, meanwhile, is fully cleared to play but isnt quite 100% recovered from the ankle injury he suffered in January.

New big man Dusan Mahorcic wont be making the trip, though that doesnt appear to be injury-related.

The Wolfpack will play a team from the Bahamas as well as the Puerto Rican national team. Keatts isnt much worried about the results of those games as he is about just getting a feel for his groups strengths and weaknesses. Its a fact-finding mission, as he put it.

NC State will be in the Bahamas from the sixth until the 11th. I dont imagine there will be any way to watch the Pack play, short of being there in person.

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Kevin Keatts discusses NC States trip to the Bahamas - Backing The Pack

FOR AS long as any of us can remember, we have believed what we have been tol that the Spanish who first discovered these islands in 1492 gave them their name, Bahama, meaning shallow sea.

Now along comes historian and author Commodore (Ret) Tellis Bethel and says, not so fast, these islands were named long before the Spanish arrived in the late 1400s. They were named by the indigenous Lucayan Indians who inhabited the Lucayan Archipelago from 700 AD or even earlier.

In his latest book, How The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands Got Their Names (Inspire Publishing 2022), Commodore Bethel gives us six solid reasons for the conclusion, any one of which is enough to give credence to his argument. Here are two.

One of the most compelling reasons for the conclusion is that those with the extraordinarily rare opportunity to name a place they have discovered name the landmass, not the waters. To think of the waters instead of the place would be like calling New York City the Hudson River.

In fact, explains Bethel, what Italian navigator Christopher Columbus under Spanish authority called the territory they landed on Islands and Mainland of the Indies in the Ocean Sea. Why did they call it that? Because they believed they had landed in the spice islands of the East Indies.

History shows the tragedy of their epic mistake. It was not the Indies off Asia as Columbus thought, nor was it spices or gold the discoverers of the New World found, but cheap labour, plenty of it in the Taino and Lucayan people whom they rounded up and exported to other islands or carried back to Europe where they perished from disease and other causes, including distress.

With meticulous research and patience, Bethel poured through hundreds of documents and he is not alone in this finding references only to the Islands of the Ocean Sea off the Asian Mainland in terms of Europeans naming what we know as The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands. Ocean Sea was so accepted as the name that when Isabella, Queen of Spain, wanted to reward Columbus he was given the title Admiral of the Ocean Sea.

So if the Spanish did not refer to the country as Bahama, but only as Isles of the Ocean Sea or Yas de los Lucayos, (Yas being short for Isles; also spelled Las Islas) where did the word come from?

Commodore Bethel cites a scholarly work on ancient languages of the Antilles by Julian Granberry and Gary Vescelius (deceased) published by the University of Alabama Press in 2004. The work traces the first reference to Bahama as meaning large upper middle land, with each of the individual islands in the Lucayan Islands having its own name long before contact with Europeans (like Habacoa for Abaco). Broken down into its smallest parts, the name Bahama is Ba, meaning big, great and large, ha means upper, and ma means middle. The word Grand was added later during European colonisation, but it was the large island in the northwestern Bahamas that first carried the Bahama name and that name was given by the Lucayans hundreds of years before Columbus ever set foot in the New World.

According to Bethel, what we now know as Grand Bahama was in the centre and often the crosshairs of the maritime world around the nation -- the vast marine banks, international shipping channels, major maritime catastrophes, Spanish treasure fleets, and billions of dollars in lost treasure near the island. In that sense, Grand Bahama played a pivotal role in the seafaring history of the archipelagic nation.

The second compelling reason to disavow the idea that the Spanish named The Bahamas for shallow sea is that the letter h in the middle of the word had largely vanished from the Spanish dictionary or vocabulary centuries earlier but was reintroduced by Spanish authorities before Columbus time. The letter j was not used interchangeably with the letter h during this period. The Spanish spelled indigenous words based on how they sounded as noted in Jumeto (a cay in the Ragged Island chain) and Guanahani, the island of Columbus first landfall. Pronunciation of the h and the j were very different in the two languages, soft in Lucayan, harsh in Spanish, whereas the letter h would have been soft in Spanish, making Bahamas a Taino- Lucayan, not Spanish, derivative.

Baja Mar does mean shallow sea, explains Commodore Bethel, and while it may seem a small distinction that The Bahamas takes its name from the Lucayan naming of one island, the island we now call Grand Bahama, it reinforces the importance of remembering the indigenous people of The Bahamas, the Lucayans.

Regardless of the Bahama names historical roots, it would be safe to say that what exists today is a country whose name is Lucayan origin but carries a Spanish meaning, (shallow sea) in the minds of some, the author writes.

Bahama and The Bahamas - Lucayan-Taino in origin, interpreted by some in the Spanish as shallow sea with an s added later during the English colonial era, its little wonder we are confused, the coincidence is a big as a coincidence gets.

All of this may not seem as important as todays headlines or tomorrows worries, but Commodore Bethel has good cause for wanting to get things right and pay homage to the indigenous people of The Bahamas.

His current position is head of the Security Forces Inspectorate and he is, like all of us, deeply disturbed by the violence in the country. He has seen what crime does, how it tears apart families, shakes confidence, destroys a culture that was once proud of being a warm, accepting and peace-loving people. If we remember our roots, he says, if we make them part of who we are today, if we have constant reminders of where we came from, we may have a better, more peaceful, path going forward.

Theres another interesting twist to the name of the indigenous people themselves. The word Lucayan means Island People.

Just as the Island People were on a quest for a better life through peaceful means, we have an inherent responsibility to make the world a more peaceful place in light of the Lucayan demise, he says.

That is also one of the reasons he has spent a decade campaigning for naming the waters the Lucayan Sea. He also reminds us that naming our waters will give us an identity of which we can be proud. A former pilot and diver, Commodore Bethel has probably sailed or flown over every square inch of The Bahamas in his long career with the Royal Bahamas Defense Force and it breaks his heart to think that the waters declared the most beautiful on earth from the vantage point of space have no identity of their own but are just a part of the vast Atlantic Ocean.

His campaign is gaining momentum. Lets hope this administration recognises the benefits that would instantly accrue from a distinct identity with visitors sailing the Lucayan Sea and locals fishing, swimming, snorkeling and just viewing what we know as our own special ocean, a place like none other, in a country named for an island in its midst by an island people who need to be remembered.

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DIANE PHILLIPS: Who really named The Bahamas? Was it Lucayans, not the Spanish and does it really mean what we think? - Bahamas Tribune

NASSAU, BAHAMAS The Bahamas Open Team trumped Seychelles in Round 6 winning three out offour games.

CM Kendrick Knowles, WCM Polina Kerelina, and Noah Albury all secured a win for the Open Team. The Bahamas Womens Team put up a valiant fight against Sudan but only WCM Daijah Johnson was able to secure a win in Round 6.

This Olympiad experience has been a challenging one but has also been a fun and learning experience, said Albury, Open Team.

He continued: Whether I win or lose I get to grow from the experience. My goal for the rest of the tournament is to win more games.

The 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad is an over-the-board team event. National Chess Federations competein classical games for gold medals, trophies, and the title of strongest chess nation in the world. Theevent consists of an 11-round Swiss tournament; each player from a national team plays againstanother player from the opposing national team.

Teams receive game points for winning or drawing games and match points for winning or drawing a match. Teams with the most match points for each section become the champions of their section, with a third award going for the team with the most points from both sections combined.

After taking a two-year hiatus from chess due to Covid, and adjusting to university life, being offered the opportunity to participate in the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India was a whirlwind of emotions for me, said Daijah Johnson, Womens Team.

She continued: After being gone for so long, my first two rounds started off a bit shaky, however, my game returned to what it once was for the preceding three rounds. After 6 rounds in all and having played 5 rounds, I won 3 games and lost 2 of them. My final win out of my three-win streak was honestly one of my favorites.

In my opinion, I played a good game from start to finish, and I truly felt like I was tapping back into the strength that I once had.

Yesterday served as a well-deserved rest day after six straight days of play. Tournament playresumes today, and Round 6 will see The Bahamas Open Team up against Barbados.

The Barbados Team comprises a highly rated International Master (IM) and FIDE Master (FM). The Bahamas Womens Team will face off against Guam. The Bahamas has a total of 17.5 points.

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Bahamas Chess Olympiad Open team roars back in Round 6 - EyeWitness News

White Bay. The Argentine basketball team arrived in Bahia Blanca yesterday, where it will begin its preparations for the double date of the World Cup qualifiers, in which it will tour Canada in Victoria and the Bahamas in Mar del Plata in a new FIBA window.

The national team, led by Nestor Che Garca, later arrived on a regular flight to the Comandante Espora Civil Balloon Station, to focus on the Dow Center Sports Complex.

Its a new process in which I cant be in the last window. I was chatting with Faisundo and the boys. I think well try to play better from the back window, the toughest opponent against Canada and then at home We have to win because it will be a good game in Mar del Plata. So we have to start preparing ourselves to play together, connect and give it our all, said Laprovitola.

The team is composed of:: Fascundo Campazo, Nicolas Laprovitola (currently without club); (FC Barcelona); Jose Villadoza (Flamengo, Brazil); Leandro Bolmaro (Utah Jazz, USA); Gabriel Deck (Real Madrid); Mark Delia (Wolves of Lithuania); Nicolas Brusino (Gran Canaria, Spain); John Paul Wallet (BAXI Manresa, Spain); Juan Francisco Fernndez (Fuenlabrada, Spain); Patrick Guarino (Girona Basketball, Spain); Taivec Galizzi (Institute of Cordoba); Tomas Chapero (Saint Josep, Spain) and Maximo Fjellerup (Girona Basketball, Spain) and Carlos Delfino (Libertas Pesaro, Italy).

Training in Bahia Blanca, the national capital of Argentine basketball, will take place until Sunday and work will continue in Mar del Plata from Monday.

There will be 14 basketball players in the Albicelle squad, holding a cumulative record of 5 wins and one loss.

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Basketball Team Already Training To Face Canada And The Bahamas - Nation World News

THE Bahamas Bodybuilding and Fitness Federations inability to travel to regional competition has been a much debated topic of discussion recently and the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture sought to clarify the issues.

The 17-member team intended to travel to Barbados last weekend for the Central American and Caribbean Games but cited a lack of funding in the appropriate timeframe to successfully book all aspects of travel logistics.

In an official press release the MYSC responded: The BBFF was the first sports federation to receive its annual grant in the first week of this new budget period. Less than two weeks later, the Federation reached out to the Ministry seeking additional financial assistance of $36,000 for a travelling team, the organisation said in a press release.

Though an unexpected and unbudgeted expense, the Ministry made a particular provision of an additional $20,000.00 to defray more than 50 percent of this late request, effectively making a total contribution of $30,000.00 in July 2022.

In last weeks press conference, BBFF President Joel Stubbs said the organisation needed $36,000 to travel but came up short in their fundraising bid.

He added that his federation BFF received $20,000 from the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture but the funds were not cleared until noon on the day of travel.

It is a requirement for federations to plan their calendar of events so they can budget their expenses and make arrangements in a timely manner for travel, the release said.

Unfortunately, the BBFF found itself in a situation where they could not secure sufficient funding to get its team to the CAC Championships in Barbados. The Ministry wholeheartedly supports these athletes, which is why we provided the largest financial assistance ever given to their organisation.

BBFF secretary general Stephen Robinson refuted the MYSCs claims of his organisation not producing its plans in a timely manner for travel.

Firstly, the BBFF submitted its 2022 annual budget to the Ministry on April 7, specifically outlining a calendar of events and costs associated with each event. The document also stated the date and the location of the CAC Championships.

Within days of the document being submitted, additional correspondence were sent pleading for early release of the annual grant as the first show (Novice Championships) was planned for May 21.

The ministry acknowledged the request and stated that they would do its best to facilitate. Unfortunately the Ministry was unable to release funds and, as a result, The Novice Championship was cancelled.

The Northern Bahamas Championship in Freeport, Grand Bahama that was scheduled for June 28 also had to be postponed and rescheduled for July 2 due to insufficient funds in the Federations account.

Robinson said: This response is not meant to embarrass or disrespect the Ministry, but to clear the air and state openly that despite our communication, acts of transparency and adequate planning for our annual events, the lack of funding was the main reason why team Bahamas was unable to travel perform, hear the national anthem played or have our flag hoisted at the 49th edition of the CAC Games.

We are grateful as a federation for the Ministrys grant despite it being reduced from $15k to the sum of 10k by the previous administration.

We still await a quantifiable reason as to why the grant was reduced.

The BBFF has a rich tradition of successful performances at the CAC Championships.

In 2021, struggling through the COVID-19 pandemic, The Bahamas still managed to field an eight-member team to El Salvador, for the CACs.

The team won a total of nine medals - two gold, three silver and three bronze.

In this years competition, Barbados was declared the overall winner, Antigua and Barbuda was second and Mexico finished third.

During the live feed, we were able to inspect all competitors in the various categories while performing and was able to conclude with a fair assessment/judgment, Stubbs said in a release following the event.

Based on my expertise as a qualified international judge, I would like to unequivocally state without bias that, had Team Bahamas attended the championship, we would have stood tall and proud on the podium in just about all of the categories we had intended to take competitors in.

Our athletes would have won resoundingly, walking away with top honours in many of their respective categories.

Team Bahamas now looks ahead to other regional meets beginning in Miami, Florida, August 26-28.

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Ministry responds to Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation - Bahamas Tribune