Sean Nero

Even as Olympic hope­fuls en­gage in keen in­ter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tion to reg­is­ter qual­i­fy­ing times for Rio 2016, Sports Min­is­ter Brent San­cho and T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) pres­i­dent Bri­an Lewis are con­firm­ing that new and en­hanced arrange­ments for the prepa­ra­tion of ath­letes ahead of the games are in place.

But nei­ther of­fi­cial was will­ing to dis­close, at this time, the lev­el of in­vest­ment re­quired to boost T&T's chances at the games.In a joint in­ter­view with the T&T Guardian, they as­sured the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty and most im­por­tant­ly the ath­letes and their rep­re­sent­ing bod­ies that this coun­try's medal push for Rio, would be un­like any be­fore.

Lewis said plans for Rio 2016 were "go­ing ex­cel­lent," and ex­plained that a pre-qual­i­fi­ca­tion fig­ure could not be dis­closed be­cause the ap­proach by his ex­ec­u­tive, the min­is­ter and his staff, as well as na­tion­al sport­ing or­gan­i­sa­tions was in­te­grat­ed.

"Plans are go­ing ex­treme­ly well. The Olympic Com­mit­tee con­tin­ues to work very close­ly with the min­is­ter of sport and the min­istry of sport, the Sport Com­pa­ny (of T&T) and all the stake­hold­ers. We con­tin­ue to put things in place. The fact is we are ap­proach­ing a very cru­cial mile­stone in the con­text of Rio 2016, which is one year to go, from the 5th of Au­gust. It is very cru­cial that we con­tin­ue to work to­geth­er be­cause with one year to go, there is no room and mar­gin for er­ror where our ath­letes are con­cerned," Lewis said.

San­cho said his min­istry staff met with of­fi­cials of sport­ing or­gan­i­sa­tion un­der the Olympic char­ter for a pro­gramme called the Podi­um Push.

The min­is­ter said, "We have asked the dif­fer­ent dis­ci­plines to go out and come back to us with what they be­lieve their ath­letes need to be podi­um ready for 2016. We are just wait­ing to put the fi­nal touch­es on that. We will now in­vest fur­ther to make sure that the ath­letes get every­thing for the next year to make sure that we achieve the lofty, but very at­tain­able goals set by the TTOC pres­i­dent."

The suc­cess at the Pan Amer­i­can Games said Lewis pro­vid­ed greater clar­i­ty in terms of who have qual­i­fied, while help­ing his ex­ec­u­tive to un­der­stand what ath­letes need­ed to do to qual­i­fy.In his view the Podi­um Push was an ide­al com­ple­ment to the10 or more Olympic Gold Medals by 2024 pro­gramme.

Lewis said, "The Olympic Com­mit­tee is very hap­py that every­thing is be­ing done and we are hav­ing the pos­i­tive, nec­es­sary and on-go­ing dis­cus­sions. I am con­fi­dent once noth­ing comes in the way of that our ath­letes will have no rea­son to say they weren't as pre­pared as they could for Rio 2016. We are on the same page with the min­is­ter and I feel con­fi­dent that I can say that be­cause he has been there be­fore and he un­der­stands what is re­quired and that it is about ac­tion and not talk."

San­cho praised the TTOC's 10 or More Olympic Gold Medal ini­tia­tive, which in his view epit­o­mized the kind of healthy re­la­tion­ship na­tion­al sport­ing or­gan­i­sa­tions need­ed to es­tab­lish with the cor­po­rate sec­tor.

"It's a won­der­ful idea. It's a true tes­ta­ment to the in­no­v­a­tive idea that is set out by the TTOC. At the end of the day, I think any fi­nan­cial re­wards at the end of it, is some­thing that could be part and par­cel of a dri­ve for an ath­lete to com­pete and do well, as well as the na­tion­al pride that comes with ding well for your coun­try. It's a tru­ly in­ge­nious idea," he said.

Lewis said a num­ber of joint projects were in the pipeline be­tween the TTOC and the min­istry of sport which in­cludes the Elite Ath­lete Hous­ing Pro­gramme and the set­ting up of the Good Gov­er­nance Com­mis­sion.

"So there is a lot tak­ing place. We all recog­nise that we can't con­tin­ue to do that same things over and over and ex­pect dif­fer­ent re­sults. The de­mands now be­ing placed on our ath­letes and sports and sport ad­min­is­tra­tors means we all need col­lec­tive­ly to rise above the chal­lenge," said the TTOC of­fi­cial.