Donna Raynor, President of  the Bermuda National Athletics Association, says the island is ready to host the CARIFTA  Games regardless of whatever rescheduled date organisers ultimately settle upon.

Bermuda was scheduled to host the Games last year but the annual event was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Organisers then rescheduled the  Games for the Easter weekend, April 3 to 5, of this year with Bermuda retained as the host country.

However, a recent spike in positive COVID-19 cases, both in the United States and in Bermuda, has raised concerns for both the host country and the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) about the ability to stage the Games in less than three months time.

Among a list of proposals outlined in a survey organisers sent out to respective federations last month to obtain their input on key issues surrounding the event, was the possibility of staging the Games in late June or early July instead.

“As you know we are ready,” Raynor said. “We have everything ready and basically the only thing that we would have to confirm right now is transportation and accommodation

“Those are the only two things that are outstanding for us and whatever dates they say the Games are, we just have to make sure that we secure accommodation and transportation.”

“The survey went out before Christmas and we gave them a deadline of January 8,” Raynor, who is also chairwoman of the local organising committee, added.

Raynor says the association “are fine” with any of the dates that have been selected or mentioned, but prefer not to host the Games in April.

“For us, April would be kind of stressful because we don’t know where COVID-19 is going to be and what travel is going to be like,” she added.

“Our preference is to move it. But if they say April then we will just have to get ourselves prepared.

The CARIFTA Games , founded by the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA). was first held in 1972 and consists of track and field events including sprint races, hurdles, middle distance track events, jumping and throwing events, and relays.