The Spe­cial Olympics Trinidad and To­ba­go (SOTT) Na­tion­al Games of­fi­cial­ly opened on Sat­ur­day with over 500 ath­letes set to par­tic­i­pate this year fol­low­ing a three-year hia­tus due to the pan­dem­ic. The Na­tion­al Games is a mul­ti-sport event staged at var­i­ous venues si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly, show­cas­ing the tal­ents of Spe­cial Olympics ath­letes in Ath­let­ics, Bas­ket­ball, Boc­ce, Eques­tri­an, Foot­ball, Pow­er­lift­ing, Swim­ming and Vol­ley­ball. Its re­turn puts Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Spe­cial Olympics ath­letes on the road to Berlin for the Spe­cial Olympics World Games in June 2023.

At the open­ing of the Na­tion­al Games, Patrice Charles, As­sis­tant Di­rec­tor of Phys­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion and Sport in the Min­istry of Sport and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, con­grat­u­lat­ed the SOTT and its ath­letes on over­com­ing the chal­lenges of COVID-19 and re­turn­ing to com­pe­ti­tion with such ex­cite­ment and grandeur. The event is al­so sig­nif­i­cant for be­ing the first Na­tion­al Games open­ing cer­e­mo­ny to be held at the Man­ny Ramjohn Sta­di­um, since the SOTT Sec­re­tari­at opened its doors there in 2022.

Dur­ing a tour of the SOTT’s Sec­re­tari­at, For­mer First La­dy and Pa­tron of SOTT, Za­lay­har Has­sanali, ex­pressed her de­light at the trans­for­ma­tion of the fa­cil­i­ty. The space was pro­vid­ed by SporTT in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Min­istry of Sport and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment. Through the Dig­i­cel Foun­da­tion’s in­vest­ment of TT $466,000, it was ren­o­vat­ed from a shell of a build­ing with noth­ing but a dirt floor to a ful­ly-equipped home for the SOTT. Mrs Has­san­li com­mend­ed the SOTT on what she con­sid­ered to be the most sig­nif­i­cant ac­com­plish­ment of the space – its po­ten­tial to pro­vide em­ploy­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties for the SOTT com­mu­ni­ty, who will as­sist with run­ning the stor­age fa­cil­i­ty, the re­cep­tion area, and the of­fice.