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Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Now on to Daegu, Korea

by

20110818

The Na­tion­al Ath­let­ic Cham­pi­onships were as ex­cit­ing as they were con­tro­ver­sial, giv­en some of the ups and downs wit­nessed over the two days. These cham­pi­onships helped to se­lect the team for the IAAF World Ath­let­ic Cham­pi­onships in South Ko­rea. The week­end was plagued by heat­ed dis­cus­sions. These in­clud­ed the track re­con­struc­tion, the seed­ing of ath­letes, can­cel­la­tions of events, cir­cum­vent­ing the rules that gov­ern ath­let­ics, ap­point­ment of the chair­man for the games, the se­lec­tion of two coach­es from the same ath­let­ic team to ac­com­pa­ny our na­tion­al team, two key of­fi­cials on a 70 per cent lim­ing pa­trol of the sta­di­um area in vi­o­la­tion of sta­di­um rules and for­eign ath­letes com­pet­ing in na­tion­al events as op­posed to in­vi­ta­tion­al. T&T has se­lect­ed eight fe­male ath­letes with no fe­male of­fi­cials. We have to un­der­stand that "the NAAA does not feel it nec­es­sary to ex­plain to the cit­i­zens of T&T their se­lec­tion cri­te­ria."

De­fend­ing cham­pi­on Kel­ly-Ann Bap­tiste was ex­empt from the cham­pi­onships to con­tin­ue her prepa­ra­tion abroad. Bap­tiste's 10.84 sec­onds for the 100 me­tres eas­i­ly demon­strates that she is T&T's best bet at win­ning gold in the short sprints in Daegu. Young Lee-Ahye who is on the team to Daegu, Ko­rea, has had an out­stand­ing sea­son and rose to the oc­ca­sion, run­ning close to her per­son­al best of 11.15 sec­onds in the na­tion­als. Sor­ril­lo and Je­hue Gor­don were stand­outs in the men's 200m and 400m hur­dles re­spec­tive­ly while Dar­ryl Brown has made a re­mark­able re­cov­ery from in­juries. He has run well this sea­son but did not dis­play the kind of con­sis­ten­cy need­ed to earn a place on the team. The most out­stand­ing ath­lete in the meet was na­tion­al record hold­er Richard Thomp­son who clocked 9.85 sec­onds in the 100 me­tres. Af­ter a de­mand­ing sea­son, Kel­ly–Ann Bap­tiste could hard­ly be blamed for hav­ing skipped the cham­pi­onships. She has chal­lenged the 2011 Di­a­mond League cham­pi­on Carmeli­ta Jeter of the USA. She has beat­en the Olympic cham­pi­ons Veron­i­ca Camp­bell Brown and Shel­ley Fras­er Pryce of Ja­maica at 100 me­tres dur­ing the 2011 Di­a­mond league cir­cuit in Eu­rope. She is set to chal­lenge for a medal in Deagu.

Over­all, it was an emo­tion­al­ly charged two days. De­spite all this, the ath­letes will pre­vail, es­pe­cial­ly when in­di­ca­tions are that Thomp­son will most like­ly be in the great­est shape of his life. This team will once again dis­play our coun­try's ath­let­ic prowess on the world's biggest sport­ing stage of 2011. Be­ing a mem­ber of the T&T team is the ful­fill­ment of a dream. I per­son­al­ly ex­pe­ri­enced this emo­tion and sta­tus. It is the guid­ing am­bi­tion for many ath­letes. The at­tain­ment of this goal car­ries with it a great amount of pres­tige. Some feel no­bil­i­ty, oth­ers re­spon­si­bil­i­ties that must be main­tained. A great ath­let­ic his­to­ry is not built overnight. It takes hard work, in­flex­i­ble am­bi­tion and the de­ter­mi­na­tion of many peo­ple. As a mem­ber of an elite group of spe­cialised ath­let­ic in­di­vid­u­als, one in­her­its a mag­nif­i­cent cus­tom, an in­sti­tu­tion whose rep­u­ta­tion one is chal­lenged to up­hold.Our be­lief has been to be tri­umphant with ho­n­our. We per­se­vere and ex­cel, giv­ing ho­n­our to our coun­try. Such a prac­tice is wor­thy of the best ef­forts of all con­cerned. Our teams have achieved their fair share of in­ter­na­tion­al suc­cess and recog­ni­tion over time. Daegu, Ko­rea should not be dif­fer­ent. The task is not easy, yet not dif­fi­cult to achieve. When you wear the red, black and white col­ors of the na­tion, we as­sume that you un­der­stand our tra­di­tion, that you are our am­bas­sadors and that you will as­sume the re­spon­si­bil­i­ties that come with them.

As a team mem­ber, you per­form a lead­er­ship role. Do your best. The spot­lights are on you. The world judges you by your per­for­mance, con­duct and at­ti­tudes on and off the field. Be­cause of this lead­er­ship role, cit­i­zens will be ex­alt­ed by your faith­ful ex­em­pli­fi­ca­tion of the Olympic ideals. Live up to all of the train­ing rules. Play the game hon­est­ly and well. Run your race to the fin­ish. Keep your self- re­spect and your coun­try and the world can be just­ly proud of you. Your younger broth­ers and sis­ters are wait­ing in the wings to fol­low in your foot­steps as you have fol­lowed in the path of those pi­o­neer ath­letes be­fore you. Our coun­try is striv­ing for ex­cel­lence and not com­pro­mise and medi­oc­rity. The con­cepts of self-dis­ci­pline and self-de­nial are tem­pered by your re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to recog­nise the rights of in­di­vid­u­als with­in the ob­jec­tives of the team. You have dis­ci­plined your minds and bod­ies for rig­or­ous com­pe­ti­tion. "Just do it!" Good Luck!


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