Flora Duffy was an obvious choice as guest speaker for the Women in Sports Banquet and Expo next weekend, but her first race of the 2019 season, the WTS Abu Dhabi, clashes with the event.

“She would have been one of our first choices when we talked about elite athletes,” said Donna Raynor, chairperson of the Women in Sports committee, which is delivering the two-day event next Friday and Saturday at the Hamilton Princess.

“Also she would have had to come all the way from South Africa for just two days in Bermuda.”

Duffy is scheduled to return to Bermuda in April to defend her MS Amlin Word Triathlon Bermuda title.

Olympians Jearl Miles-Clark and her sister-in-law Hazel Clark will be the guest speakers at the event.

Miles-Clarke won gold medals for the United States in the 4x400 metres relay at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, while compatriot Clark is now the director of sports and business development for the Bermuda Tourism Authority.

The banquet and expo will feature gymnastics and jump rope demonstrations next Saturday when Olympic diver Katura Horton-Perinchief, Paralympian Jessica Lewis and netball player Dominique Richardson will be on a panel with their mothers. Horton-Perinchief’s mother, Ellen Kate, is a former member of the Big Blue Machine Bermuda softball team.

Horton-Perinchief, who became the first black woman to compete in Olympic diving at the Athens Olympics in 2004, is also on the Women in Sports committee along with Branwen Smith-King, the first Bermudian to win a medal at the inaugural Carifta Games in 1972 in Barbados. Her daughter, Arantxa King, is a former Olympic long jumper.

“We came up with the idea after we performed a women’s in sports survey across the schools and found that a lot of our girls are not involved in sports or doing anything,” Raynor said.

Lewis and Richardson are still active and will talk about their experiences. Lewis is a wheelchair sprinter while Richardson quit football because of three knee surgeries and has now returned to her first love, netball, where she is the Bermuda captain. Her retirement from football two years ago came just as she was about to be named as the Bermuda captain.

“We not just touting sports,” Raynor added. “We’re trying to get them involved in just moving and that’s why we will have a jump rope demonstration.

“We’re gearing the banquet towards young athletes and what’s great is that a lot of sports governing bodies have sponsored their young girls to attend. Some, like the BFA [Bermuda Football Association] and BNAA, are sponsoring tables.”

Raynor: The main thing is that each of the panellists will have their mothers with them. The story the Clarks will be telling on the Friday night is their journey with parental support.

“We’re trying to not just focus on the athlete but the parent and the coach as well, so that they understand that it goes hand in hand to get an athlete to the elite level.

“Hazel Clark’s father is Joe Clark, a big disciplinarian and the Lean on Me movie is about him as a principal of a school.

“At the end of the day some may not reach that level and some may not want to reach that level, so that’s the message that we want to put out there as well.

“There is a very high rate of diabetes in Bermuda and we need to get girls moving. Our theme is be the champion of your life.”