Fif­teen-year-old Marisa Dick will be T&T's on­ly rep­re­sen­ta­tive at the Pan Amer­i­can Ap­pa­ra­tus Cham­pi­onships in Colom­bia on June 18. Dick has been la­belled as the first ju­nior elite ath­lete to rep­re­sent T&T at this lev­el. The Cana­di­an-born teenag­er was in­tro­duced yes­ter­day at the launch of the 18th Na­tion­al In­vi­ta­tion­al Gym­nas­tics Cham­pi­onships, which will take place at the Wood­brook Youth Fa­cil­i­ty, Wood­brook on Sat­ur­day and Sun­day. The two-day meet is card­ed to start at 9.30 am and will see 243 par­tic­i­pat­ing ath­letes in­clud­ing a vis­it­ing Bar­ba­di­an team. Pres­i­dent of the T&T Gym­nas­tics Fed­er­a­tion Ri­car­do Lue Shue be­gan by thank­ing spon­sors Bea­con In­sur­ance for con­tin­ued sup­port and their in­vest­ment of $40,000 to­wards the cham­pi­onships.

Lue Shue al­so praised the Sport Com­pa­ny of T&T for their as­sis­tance dur­ing the tran­si­tion from the T&T Am­a­teur Gym­nas­tics As­so­ci­a­tion (TTA­GA) to the T&T Gym­nas­tics Fed­er­a­tion. "Our part­ner­ship will el­e­vate gym­nas­tics to heights nev­er ex­pe­ri­enced be­fore and I be­lieve that the move will cre­ate a bet­ter func­tion­ing ad­min­is­tra­tive NGB (Na­tion­al Gov­ern­ing Board) to raise the qual­i­ty of gym­nas­tics through­out T&T." He con­tin­ued: "Our mis­sion is to ed­u­cate coach­es, in­crease our recre­ation­al pro­grammes and show­case the tal­ent­ed gym­nasts of this coun­try to the world." Ex­ec­u­tive Man­ag­er, Sport De­vel­op­ment and Per­for­mance An­tho­ny Creed wel­comed the T&TGF to the Sport Com­pa­ny and hint­ed that ef­forts were be­ing made to as­sist the T&T Gym­nas­tic Fed­er­a­tion in mov­ing for­ward.

"It is a plea­sure to have the T&TGF as part of the fam­i­ly of the Sport Com­pa­ny for this fi­nan­cial year. Every ef­fort is be­ing made to as­sist the T&T Gym­nas­tic Fed­er­a­tion in mov­ing for­ward in help­ing them de­vel­op the ad­min­is­tra­tion to help them de­vel­op ath­letes. " This week­end's cham­pi­onship will fea­ture four events for girls (balls, bars, beam and floor) while boys will fea­ture in all six events (horse rings, balls, keys, bars and high bar). Dick, who is from Al­ber­ta, Cana­da, will be ac­com­pa­nied by her moth­er and coach Dvid­iu Ser­ban, a for­mer na­tion­al coach of Ro­ma­nia. The ninth grade mid­dle school stu­dent said it was an ho­n­our to be rep­re­sent­ing T&T, the birth place of the moth­er. Dick re­cent­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed in her Province's tri­als where she place ninth over all.