An­dre Bap­tise

The Na­tion­al Cham­pi­onships will oc­cur this week­end with a lot at stake, not least of which will be se­lec­tion for the World Cham­pi­onships in Bei­jing.

Al­so there will be the small mat­ter of brag­ging rights for yet an­oth­er year for these very com­pet­i­tive ath­letes.

These are the best ath­letes in the coun­try, some of whom have been train­ing for a long time, show­ing their abil­i­ty and most im­por­tant­ly prov­ing them­selves.

For all the months of train­ing, every­thing will need to be in place, in­clud­ing the need for pos­i­tive en­er­gy. There­fore it is not sur­pris­ing that some of the top ath­letes use their ex­pe­ri­ence to en­sure that they have a noisy sup­port cast in the crowd, which can not on­ly give them mo­men­tum, but al­so men­tal­ly up­set their op­po­nents.

It is the equiv­a­lent of home crowd ad­van­tage in foot­ball. I am hop­ing that every­one can trav­el to the Sta­di­um this week­end from 2pm, each day to en­joy tons of ex­cite­ment and loads of peace of mind, at a time when such re­lax­ation is dif­fi­cult to find any­where else.

As we look to­wards Brazil Olympics, the World Cham­pi­onships will be the great­est form guide, and for the ma­jor­i­ty of ath­letes it is crit­i­cal that a mes­sage be sent to com­peti­tors and spon­sors about their re­spec­tive fit­ness and abil­i­ty.

Lest all of us for­get the ob­vi­ous, a lot of sports are played in the mind and so for all of the nat­ur­al tal­ent that T&T cit­i­zens sug­gest we have, the need to strength­en our re­solve by push­ing our mind is im­por­tant.

"Bad Mind" is not a joke, but should be com­pul­so­ry think­ing for any­one in­volved in sports.

Among the in­cen­tives to at­tend this week­end's events, will be the op­por­tu­ni­ty to watch Olympic gold medal­ist Keshorn Wal­cott in the javelin, where in the last few months he has on two sep­a­rate oc­ca­sions not on­ly ex­ceed­ed his Olympic win­ning dis­tance but al­so set na­tion­al dis­tance records.

Wal­cott seems to have re­cov­ered from a lot of nig­gling in­juries and it will be won­der­ful for a sell­out crowd to jeer on our sec­ond gold medal­ist. Al­so, 2014 Com­mon­wealth sil­ver medal­ist, Cleopa­tra Borel in the shot put, has been putting in some long hours and good per­for­mances and it will be great to sup­port one of the most com­mit­ted ath­letes in this coun­try. It would be im­por­tant for par­ents to let their daugh­ters watch Borel and be in­spired. Then there is the 100 me­tres where Richard Thomp­son will be seek­ing re­demp­tion af­ter an in­dif­fer­ent sea­son.

The beard­ed Thomp­son has of­ten pro­duced some ex­cep­tion­al times at this venue and he will be seek­ing the same, but will have to deal with Ke­ston Bled­man, who ap­pears to be round­ing in­to his best form. And while oth­ers like Em­manuel Cal­len­der, Ron­dell So­ril­lo and the young­ster Ay­o­delle Taffe will have im­pos­ing ideas, it will as much a test of pride as a place on the 4x100 me­tres re­lay six-man squad.

The women's 100 me­tres ap­pears to al­so be a two-per­son con­test with in­jury prone Michele Lee-Ahye throw­ing down the gaunt­let to the wily and ex­pe­ri­enced Kel­ly Ann Bap­tiste. It is a test of the old mas­ter against the young chal­lenger, which, even if nei­ther ad­mits, is a bat­tle for more than just a ti­tle but re­al­ly to be the num­ber one fe­male 100 me­tre run­ner in this coun­try.

Whether or not Se­moy Hack­ett will re­turn and al­so the ever present and con­sis­tent Kai Selvon will al­so be of in­ter­est, al­so with the re­lays in mind.

Let us hope that both the men and women sprint­ers re­alise the im­por­tance of dou­bling up in the 200 me­tres as four time Olympic Medal­ist Ato Boldon has been rec­om­mend­ing.

How­ev­er, the main at­trac­tion has to be the men's 400 me­tres, where the men with the sec­ond and third best times in the world are ex­pect­ed to clash in Machel Ce­de­no and De­on Lendore re­spec­tive­ly.

How­ev­er, both have strug­gled of late through a com­bi­na­tion of in­jury and form and Olympic bronze medal­ist La Londe Gor­don will have oth­er ideas.

Giv­en that de­fend­ing cham­pi­on Ren­ny Quow will be out to sur­prise with his late run and the con­sis­tent Jar­rin Solomon, who runs with his heart on the sleeve at every junc­ture. This is an event that should not be missed, as the tac­tics and strat­e­gy will be im­por­tant in set­ting the tone for the fi­nal re­sult.

It has been a long time since peo­ple had a chance to watch a qual­i­ty field in the 400 me­tres and should en­cour­age those many sport­ing afi­ciona­dos in this coun­try to fill the sta­di­um this week­end. Let us not for­get the de­fend­ing World Cham­pi­onships 400 me­tres hur­dler, Je­hue Gor­don, who will be hop­ing to re­cap­ture some form ahead of de­fend­ing his ti­tle.

Gor­don and his team led Dr Ian Hy­po­lite and Ed­win Skin­ner are ex­perts at peak­ing and tim­ing, so we can ex­pect some­thing spe­cial.

So, T&T, come out and make your voic­es known in an at­mos­phere of ex­cite­ment and fun. It is time to show sup­port for our ath­letes and in­spire them. We need the Sta­di­um to have an­oth­er day of cel­e­bra­tion, as we recog­nise the dri­ve and abil­i­ty of our sons and daugh­ters. :: AB