Je­lani Beck­les

Fol­low­ing T&T's best ever medal haul in the his­to­ry of the Pan Amer­cian Games, the na­tion­al track and field ath­letes re­ceived an added boost as Toy­ota has agreed to con­tribute $750,000 to­wards the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee's Ath­lete Wel­fare and Prepa­ra­tion Fund.

The an­nounce­ment was made yes­ter­day at the T&T Olympic House on Aber­crom­by Street, Port-of-Spain.

Toy­ota T&T Lim­it­ed will con­tribute $150,000 per year for the next five years lead­ing up to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Pres­i­dent of the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) Bri­an Lewis said Toy­ota's in­volve­ment is time­ly af­ter T&T won eight medals (three gold, three sil­ver and two bronze) at the re­cent­ly con­clud­ed Pan Am Games in Toron­to, Cana­da. Speak­ing about Toy­ota's spon­sor­ship, Lewis said, "In March this year Toy­ota Mo­tor Cor­po­ra­tion signed a his­toric agree­ment with the In­ter­na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tee (IOC) to be­come a top part­ner. Toy­ota Mo­tor Cor­po­ra­tion is now a top part­ner of the IOC in the ve­hi­cle and mo­bil­i­ty cat­e­go­ry.

"In T&T, Toy­ota has made a spe­cif­ic con­tri­bu­tion to the ten or more Olympic gold medals by the year 2024 for the Ath­lete Wel­fare and Prepa­ra­tion Fund dur­ing the course of the five-year part­ner­ship. In ad­di­tion Toy­ota will be­come the of­fi­cial ve­hi­cle and mo­bil­i­ty part­ner of the TTOC, sup­port­ing our trans­port needs where need­ed and with­in cer­tain con­straints."

Sean Shaffie, mar­ket­ing man­ag­er at Toy­ota, said the pres­i­dent and CEO of Toy­ota signed on as an of­fi­cial Olympic spon­sor for the 2020 Games, a deal re­port­ed­ly val­ued at $835,000,000 US dol­lars. Shaffie stat­ed this was one of the rea­sons Toy­ota T&T Lim­it­ed de­cid­ed to get in­volved.

Shaffie said: "Toy­ota T&T Lim­it­ed is proud to an­nounce this morn­ing that for the next five years, start­ing to­day, we will be sup­port­ing our Olympic con­tin­gent via the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee to help them pre­pare for the 2020 Olympics. Not on­ly be­cause our par­ent com­pa­ny is an of­fi­cial Olympic spon­sor, but be­cause it is part of our burn­ing de­sire to co­or­di­nate and con­tribute to Olympic suc­cess for our ath­letes."

Toy­ota's mar­ket­ing man­ag­er said: "Achiev­ing suc­cess has be­come a sym­bol­ic part of Toy­ota in T&T and in the rest of the world. We have been the num­ber one sell­ing branch for many years across the re­gion and con­nect­ing our suc­cess with our Olympic ath­letes came nat­u­ral­ly."

Shaffie said Toy­ota has al­ways been a sup­port­er of lo­cal ath­letes and cul­ture. "Toy­ota T&T Lim­it­ed has al­ways been an ad­vo­cate for sport and lo­cal cul­ture. We have been sup­port­ing sport­ing ini­tia­tives and the arts since in­cep­tion and con­tin­ue to do so with­out hes­i­ta­tion.

"Our ath­letes are our pride and joy and we (cor­po­rate T&T) need to show our love and sup­port to these young men and women. Give them the en­cour­age­ment to make us all proud. Their com­mitt­ment gives us great plea­sure."