Caribbean Sports News.....
Published: Sunday | May 11th, 2008

St. Vincent and the Grenadines star quarter miler, Kineke Alexander, is preparing herself secretly to become her country’s first-ever 400m female finalist at a major championship when she takes part in the event at the Olympic Games in Beijing, China, this summer.   Alexander, a senior at the University of Iowa, was asked by her country to wear the colors in her first Olympic Games, following her two World Championship appearances, and she jokingly said it was not a big surprise.   Unlike many other Caribbean countries, such as Trinidad and Jamaica, the powerhouses in sports, and in a region stocked with numerous gifted athletes who are chosen from Championships trials, St Vincent and the Grenadines does not have that depth of athletes but she will not be alone in China as she will be joined by her cousin and training partner Gerard Lewis, who will also represent the country against the big guns in the men's 100 meters.

In Barbados, retired Deputy Chief Licensing Officer and popular former Barbados cricketer, Gerry Harding, is dead. Colleagues and close friends confirmed that Harding, 64, died on the morning of Thursday, May 8th after losing the battle with colon cancer which had confined him to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for six weeks.  Harding, a former policeman, spent 23 years with the Royal Barbados Police Force before joining the Licensing Authority on April 1, 1984, as a senior testing officer. He also served as Deputy Chief Licensing Officer before retiring in 2003.   Born November 1, 1943, in St Christopher, Christ Church, Harding enlisted in the Police Force on September 17, 1961.  He represented the Police team in the heyday of the Barbados Cricket Association's ten-team Division 1 competition and played throughout the 1960s and 1970s in teams with stalwarts such as Oliver Brome and Ivor Brathwaite.   Harding, a right-handed batsman and off-spin bowler, made his first class debut for Barbados (two matches) in the 1974-1975 season, playing his first match against the then Combined Islands at Kensington Oval on March 29, 1975, and later against Jamaica at Jarrett Park, MoBay.   He leaves to mourn wife Yvette and two children.