Dr Cliff Bertrand

To fin­ish and win, you have to start the race. He­brews 12:1 says that there is a race set be­fore us that we are to run. You have to move for­ward and keep mov­ing for­ward.This is the life of Ato. A life of per­pet­u­al move­ment in­spir­ing peo­ple all over the world to move for­ward and take their prize. Make a con­tri­bu­tion in the quest for a bet­ter world. He has shown that in or­der to fin­ish and win, you must be a par­tic­i­pant and not just a spec­ta­tor or glo­ri­fied wall flower.You must re­port to the starter on the track. Your pub­lic re­spon­si­bil­i­ties be­gin with the ac­qui­si­tion of a medal. To ho­n­our and serve!Ato is viewed as one of the lead­ing track per­son­al­i­ties in the his­to­ry of the Caribbean.He now en­ters the UCLA's Hall of Fame.Ato's in­duc­tion will help in­spire T&T's Ath­letes. It will height­en par­tic­i­pa­tion as spec­ta­tor or ath­lete.Sports afi­ciona­dos are say­ing that Ato's his­toric in­duc­tion in­to UCLA'S Hall of Fame will in­spire the na­tion's youth pop­u­la­tion, from our Olympic hope­fuls to young peo­ple who par­tic­i­pate in sports for fit­ness and fun.

Ato is the sec­ond Caribbean ath­lete, the oth­er be­ing Ka­reem Ab­dul-Jab­bar to be in­duct­ed in­to UCLA's Hall of Fame's his­to­ry. This is a great and his­tor­i­cal day for T&T. Ato's in­de­fati­ga­ble work ethics, de­ter­mi­na­tion and achieve­ments with­in and out­side the walls of the na­tion and one of Amer­i­ca's most pres­ti­gious uni­ver­si­ties has put him at the top of the podi­um and his game as well as in­to the books of Caribbean and US his­to­ry.Ato's achieve­ments should prompt young peo­ple to join clubs and seek pro­fes­sion­al coach­ing and as­sis­tance to en­hance and per­fect their skills.The T&T Gov­ern­ment has just con­tract­ed with Cu­ba a mul­ti­mil­lion dol­lar ini­tia­tive to pro­vid­ed coach­ing in the years lead­ing through 2012 Olympics to sup­port sports and boost gen­er­al par­tic­i­pa­tion at grass­roots lev­els. The Gov­ern­ment's ef­forts must be ap­pre­ci­at­ed as we go in search to find the next Ato Boldon.

Ato Jabari Boldon is a for­mer ath­lete from Trinidad and To­ba­go and four-time Olympic medal win­ner. On­ly two oth­er men in his­to­ry, Frankie Fred­er­icks of Namib­ia and Carl Lewis of the USA, have won as many Olympic in­di­vid­ual event sprint medals.Boldon was born in Port-of-Spain Trinidad on De­cem­ber 30, 1973, to Mr and Mrs Guy Boldon.Ato at­tend­ed Fa­ti­ma Col­lege in Trinidad. He mi­grat­ed to the Unit­ed States at age four­teen and at­tend­ed Ja­maica High School in Queens, New York City, Pied­mont Hills High School in Cal­i­for­nia. Boldon grad­u­at­ed with a de­gree in so­ci­ol­o­gy fro­mU­CLA. At age 18, Boldon rep­re­sent­ed T&T at 100 me­tres and 200 me­tres in the 1992 Sum­mer Olympics in Barcelona.In 1999 The British Broad­cast­ing Cor­po­ra­tion hired him as a com­men­ta­tor and an­a­lyst at their Cham­pi­onships He re­turned as a track-side an­a­lyst to cov­er the 2000 US Olympic Track and Field Tri­als in Cal­i­for­nia.

He was ap­point­ed sports am­bas­sador for T&T in 2000 and giv­en a diplo­mat­ic pass­port.On Feb­ru­ary 14 2006 he be­came a sen­a­tor rep­re­sent­ing then op­po­si­tion Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress. Af­ter 14 months as sen­a­tor he re­signed. He joined NBC as sports an­a­lyst cov­er­ing the 2007 US Na­tion­al Cham­pi­onships, and lat­er on in Os­a­ka 2008 Sum­mer Olympics.He was praised by the Los An­ge­les Times, USA To­day and The New York Times press for his NBC cov­er­age They called him "one of NBC's best an­a­lysts, a blend of ath­let­ic smarts, charis­ma, pre­cise analy­sis and brash­ness."Boldon cur­rent­ly cov­ers the Di­a­mond League Cir­cuit Track and Field on Uni­ver­sal Sports TV in Eu­rope.On Ju­ly 6, 2011 UCLA BRU­INS of­fi­cial web­site cit­ed: Stu­dent-ath­letes and coach­es to be Hall of Famers on No­vem­ber 4 (to­day). The in­ductees are: Gary Adams, base­ball. Ato Boldon and Ja­neene Vick­ers-McK­in­ney Track & Field. Theo­tis Brown and Ernie Case, foot­ball; Lar­ry Na­gler, ten­nis; Mel North, fenc­ing; Alex Rousseau, wa­ter po­lo.

The Class of 2011 brings the to­tal mem­ber­ship to 247.The new in­ductees will be in­tro­duced to over 20,000 fans dur­ing the half­time cer­e­monies of the UCLA-Ari­zona State foot­ball game at the Rose Bowl on No­vem­ber 5th.Ato holds the PAC-10 meet records in 100m (10.03) and 200m (20.00) and UCLA records in the 100m (9.90) and 200m (19.80). Boldon ranked No 1 in the world at the 200m on four oc­ca­sions with 19.88 and No 2 in the 100m at 9.86 sec­onds for sev­en years.He ran a to­tal of 28 sub-ten-sec­onds 100m races, in­clud­ing eight un­der 9.90 sec­onds.He won four Olympic and four World Cham­pi­onship medals.To ob­tain the prize rac­ers and run­ners have one thought in their minds. The fin­ish line! When do they stop run­ning and try­ing? Paul the apos­tle tells you to run your spir­i­tu­al race with all your might keep your fo­cus.Do not set­tle for just be­ing av­er­age. No mat­ter what the in­con­ve­nience, en­dure it, no mat­ter what the price, pay it or the re­quired ad­just­ment, and make it.

Faith­ful­ly run the race so that one day you will ob­tain the prize. Ato's jour­ney is in­com­plete-he is on­ly 38years old!