PE­TER CHRISTO­PHER

Four years af­ter be­ing promised a na­tion­al award, Dr Ian Hy­po­lite fi­nal­ly re­ceived his ho­n­our yes­ter­day.

In 2013, fol­low­ing Je­hue Gor­don's gold medal run in the Men's 400m fi­nal, then Min­is­ter of Sports Anil Roberts promised Hy­po­lite as well as the ath­lete, would re­ceive na­tion­al awards.

Gor­don would in­deed re­ceive the Cha­co­nia Gold at the 2014 na­tion­al award cer­e­mo­ny, how­ev­er, Hy­po­lite would in­stead re­ceive a let­ter stat­ing his nom­i­na­tion for the Cha­co­nia Medal - Sil­ver was re­scind­ed.

He had been a note­wor­thy snub ever since un­til he re­ceived the Hum­ming­bird Gold at NA­PA last evening.

Speak­ing af­ter the cer­e­mo­ny he said he had moved past that sit­u­a­tion.

"I haven't been wait­ing four years to get an award. My in­volve­ment in what I do is nev­er di­rect­ed or was nev­er been di­rect­ed to get an award. What hap­pened in 2014 is be­hind us. I have con­tin­ued tire­less­ly and with love and I feel very hap­py to have been the re­cip­i­ent of the award this evening," said Hy­po­lite, who was named the North Amer­i­ca, Cen­tral Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean (NACAC) Coach of the Year in 2013.

Hy­po­lite was the first lo­cal­ly-based coach to push an ath­lete to a World Cham­pi­onship gold when as a 21-year-old, Je­hue Gor­don won the men's 400 me­tres hur­dles fi­nal in Moscow, Rus­sia.

"We have this long his­to­ry of not be­ing able to ac­com­plish the high­est lev­els of per­for­mance un­less it is at some lo­ca­tion abroad. I think it is an in­spi­ra­tion to oth­er coach­es."

He hoped the award was not sim­ply tied to Je­hue's achieve­ment in 2013, "But I al­so feel that this award, and I hope that this award does not rep­re­sent that par­tic­u­lar act of coach­ing Je­hue Gor­don to a world cham­pi­onship, but al­so for the con­tin­ued ef­forts I have put in terms of de­vel­op­ing young ath­letes,"

Sev­er­al suc­cess­ful ath­letes at this year's CAC games al­so re­ceived the Hum­ming­bird Medal - Sil­ver

Nicholas Paul, who cel­e­brat­ed his 20th birth­day on Sun­day, was one of them. He was grate­ful to be ac­knowl­edged with the award.

"It just shows that hard works pays off, " said Paul in a brief word with re­porters af­ter the cer­e­mo­ny.

Swim­mer Dy­lan Carter, who flew in­to T&T for his award said, "For me, it's an in­cred­i­ble ho­n­our. I was in­cred­i­bly sur­prised when my mom told me I was re­ceiv­ing the award im­me­di­ate­ly we booked flights to come down be­cause I was in school away. I knew I couldn't miss this in­cred­i­ble ho­n­our. At such a young age it re­al­ly is over­whelm­ing to me."

Among those who were ho­n­oured by Her Ex­cel­len­cy the Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes yes­ter­day were Women's cy­clist Teneil Camp­bell, and the men's cy­cling trio of Nicholas Paul, Kwe­si Browne and two-time Olympian Njisane Phillip to­geth­er with for­mer box­ing cham­pi­on Michael Paul and Carter - with the Hum­ming­bird Medal - Sil­ver.

Ha­ji Mo­hammed Ho­sein, a re­tired school Prin­ci­pal was ho­n­oured for his con­tri­bu­tion to Sports and Ed­u­ca­tion.

Kent Be­de Bernard, who proud­ly com­pet­ed main­ly in the 400 me­tres event in the 1960s and 70s for T&T al­so got the Hum­ming­bird Medal- Gold.