An­dre Bap­tise

There is a lot to ques­tion as it re­lates to the treat­ment of sports­men and sports­women. More­so the women. since ob­vi­ous gen­der bias comes to the front de­spite the promise that ours is a pro­gres­sive so­ci­ety.

T&T's 4x100 me­tres women's re­lay team re­turned from the World Cham­pi­onships in Bei­jing with a bronze medal and al­though it was his­tor­i­cal – the first women's re­lay medal at a ma­jor cham­pi­onship, it has re­mained un­recog­nised, al­most as if it was in­signif­i­cant.

I have been pa­tient since Sep­tem­ber but it has be­come rather dis­heart­en­ing with all the ex­cus­es. There can be no rea­son for this, oth­er than share con­tempt by those in au­thor­i­ty at both the Min­istry of Sports and the Sports Com­pa­ny.

I ex­pect to be told that there was a change in gov­ern­ment and with that sev­er­al changes were made and peo­ple were moved from de­part­ments and po­si­tions, such as per­ma­nent sec­re­taries and chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cers. But that is not good enough. Ef­fi­cient process­es should ap­ply no mat­ter a change in per­son­nel. It is called – Stan­dard Op­er­at­ing Pro­ce­dures. There­fore, it would not sur­prise me if these young ladies (Kel­ly Ann Bap­tiste, Michele Lee-Ahye, Re­yare Thomas, Se­moy Hack­ett and Khal­i­fa St Forte) be­lieve that they have been un­fair­ly treat­ed, and if they were men, things would be dif­fer­ent.

Let us re­live what hap­pened in Chi­na. Read some of what was said and un­der­stand the pain and doubt about the sin­cer­i­ty of those that con­trol the fund­ing in sports:

"On Au­gust 29, T&T's 4x100 me­tres team made his­to­ry, not once (set­ting a na­tion­al record 42.24), not twice (eclips­ing that record and set­ting an­oth­er 42.03), and fi­nal­ly be­came the first women sprint­ers to win a re­lay medal in the World Cham­pi­onships, when they fin­ished third be­hind Ja­maica and the USA.

In a race that was start­ed at quick speed, it was the leader of the team, the wily and ex­pe­ri­enced cap­tain Kel­ly Ann Bap­tiste, that led from the front with a daz­zling first leg.

"I def­i­nite­ly trust Michelle. I knew that once I held my own and hand­ed over the stick to Michelle, it was go­ing to be okay once they all got the sticks around the track so I just felt that the trust was there. We are com­fort­able with each oth­er.

"No­body doubts any­one's fit­ness and foot speed, so we were just hap­py to put it to­geth­er be­cause it is tough to run a re­lay when you have not been prac­tic­ing so we came here since the 14th and we have been try­ing to work on our pass­es and I am just glad that it all worked out in the end," Bap­tiste told the Trinidad Guardian with a broad smile on her face.

Next to ac­cept the ba­ton at light­ning speed was the en­er­getic Michelle Lee Ahye. "It was a per­fect hand off and I passed it off well to Re­yare and then Se­moy shot out and I was like ohh­h­hh ohh­h­hh!!!!," said Lee Ahye.

Re­yare Thomas has a qui­et look, but this tal­ent­ed daugh­ter of the soil al­lowed her feet and brains to do the work on the third leg. "It feels great to know that we come out here with a medal to­day. I want to tell every­body who did not doubt us that we come our here with a medal and re­al­ly hap­py that hap­pen and we come out here and put on a show , and we were able to make T&T proud."

Se­moy Hack­ett ran one of the best an­chor legs, mo­tor­ing down the straight­way like an ex­press train, and for a mo­ment, just for a stride some of us thought sil­ver was pos­si­ble as Hack­ett soon made bronze in­evitable. "I think each per­son held their own, and gave 100 per cent and our ba­ton pass­ing was good enough to make us come third be­cause every­body trust­ed each oth­er and gave it their best, and this team is go­ing to Rio."

Bap­tiste added: "Thanks for those sup­port­ing us. I hope we are in­spir­ing oth­er fe­males to take part in sport and seek to ex­cel" re­marked Bap­tiste."

As we talk about bonds and friend­ship, we must not for­get the ef­fort of Khal­i­fa St Fort, who spoke af­ter the semi­fi­nal heat. "I feel great, I am so hap­py that I was able to rep­re­sent Trinidad and To­ba­go to­day. I had a won­der­ful time."

Fi­nal words on an his­toric day should go to Bap­tiste. "I was say­ing as I watched Se­moy race to the line 'Lord just let her com­plete the job, it was amaz­ing"

In­deed it was amaz­ing and prayers do work, what is next for these young ladies will be up to the As­so­ci­a­tion and their coach­es, but there ap­pears to be a bright fu­ture for these young ladies and with In­de­pen­dence Awards, just around the cor­ner, who knows what else could be in store."

Trust is an im­por­tant in­gre­di­ent in all spheres of live but par­tic­u­lar­ly in team sport. With­out that, the essence of a team can be erod­ed and lost, so can these ladies now TRUST us in sports.