Je­lani Beck­les

The T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) re­ceived a fur­ther boost to­wards its goal of ten or more gold medals by 2024, as Flow has agreed to give $5m over five years to the lo­cal track and field com­mit­tee.

This an­nounce­ment fol­lows the de­ci­sion by Toy­ota in Ju­ly to give $750,000 over the next five years lead­ing up to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

At a press con­fer­ence yes­ter­day at the TTOC of­fice on Aber­crom­by Street, Port-of-Spain, man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of Flow Bri­an Collins spoke about the part­ner­ship.

Collins said: "I am de­light­ed to share with you some of the de­tails of the part­ner­ship be­tween the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee and Flow.

"We want­ed to deep­en Flow's sup­port for the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee. These talks be­gan about eight months ago. We al­ways knew we would come to­geth­er be­cause we share the sim­i­lar pas­sion for ex­cel­lence and want­i­ng to see Trinidad and To­ba­go ath­letes per­form at the very high­est lev­el."

Collins said Flow be­lieves in long term in­vest­ment. "We be­lieve this five-year part­ner­ship is some­thing that is tru­ly sig­nif­i­cant and al­lows Bri­an (Lewis) and his team some head­space to plan ahead. They know they (TTOC) have a part­ner, a spon­sor, and they could re­ly on us. Not just what is writ­ten in the con­tract but out­side of that as this is a part­ner­ship in every form."

Collins added: "As a cor­po­rate spon­sor of de­vel­op­ment and com­mu­ni­ty in the coun­try in which we do busi­ness we ex­am­ine our in­volve­ment from three per­spec­tives–how are we sup­port­ing, how are we help­ing and what will suc­cess look like as a stake­hold­er.

"The ten or more gold medals by 2024 helped us see that clear­ly by help­ing our T&T ath­letes pre­pare for the Olympic Games. Con­tribut­ing to the suc­cess of these in­di­vid­u­als, who are so pas­sion­ate about what they do and who would like to do well for them­selves and for the love of their sport and coun­try, it was a no brain­er for us."

Pres­i­dent of the TTOC Bri­an Lewis said the mon­ey will be used ini­tial­ly for the elite ath­letes. "This is fo­cused ini­tial­ly on the elite ath­letes. This is about ten or more Olympic gold medals by 2024.

To­day the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee is a proud part­ner of one of the most in­no­v­a­tive and vi­sion­ary cor­po­rate en­ti­ties in the re­gion, and one can dare say fur­ther afield."

T&T has won two Olympic gold medals in its his­to­ry. Hase­ly Craw­ford won gold in the men's 100m event at the 1976 Games, while Keshorn Wal­cott cap­tured gold in the men's javelin in 2012.

Yes­ter­day, the TTOC al­so dis­trib­uted out­stand­ing medal bonus­es to T&T ath­letes for their per­for­mances at the Pan Amer­i­can Games ear­li­er this year. Cleopa­tra Borel col­lect­ed her bonus af­ter win­ning gold in the women's shot put, while Ren­ny Quow's fa­ther col­lect­ed on his be­half. Quow was part of the men's 4X400m team that won gold.