After a two year absence as a result of the pandemic, the recently concluded 49th edition of the Carifta Games hosted by Jamaica saw Trinidad and Tobago’s contingent emerged with 23 medals—2 gold, 11 silver and 10 bronze. There was praise from all quarters including the President of the National Association of Athletics Administration of T&T (NAAATT) who alluded to the fact that he was generally pleased with the team’s performance given the challenges they faced over the last two years.
While this praise is warranted, it must be mentioned that athletes faced heavy restrictions at various training venues due to lockdowns and fewer track meets were organised over the last two years. I am sure other countries faced similar, or even different problems, to the T&T athletes. The 56 T&T athletes that made the trip to Kingston ultimately gave their best and that was all one could have asked of them.
More importantly to me, while celebrating the achievements of the athletes is warranted, where do we go from here? The drive to establish some of these young athletes into world-class ones needed to continue yesterday. I would expect NAAATT to develop programmes and strategies on the way forward as there is just so much work to be done.
I am strictly judging this by way of comparison of the performance of the Jamaican team who won a whopping 92 medals—45 gold, 29 silver and 18 bronze. I have asked this ad nauseam—what are the Jamaicans doing that is different from T&T? How could they win 92 medals? Was COVID-19 not in Jamaica? Were their athletes constantly training over the last 2 years? It is obvious that athlete development is a long, long way behind the Jamaicans and that is not today; we have seen it in the last few Olympics and I am not just referring to Usain Bolt. Every occasion in which a Jamaican competes, no matter the name, you instantly have a feeling that he or she can be on the podium.
Has anybody taken the time to study their programmes? The answer to that may be yes, well then, how come their athletes are so far ahead of T&T’s athletes? Do they pay more attention to their primary and secondary school’s programmes in Jamaica than in T&T? How many meets do they have a year?
Are their tracks different from the tracks here? Are the training facilities different from the facilities here? What about coaching and coaches? Is the quality more advanced than in T&T? Maybe, just maybe, their coaches and training methods are different in Jamaica but somehow, it has consistently been working for them. Let us face facts—the gap is huge and I don’t expect T&T to wake up in the morning and suddenly have its athletes battling toe to toe with the Jamaicans.
However, surely someone somewhere has to be looking at the Jamaicans and trying to emulate their training methods and their programmes because results matter and it is indisputably working for them.
Just look at sports all over the world and countries that are successful in a specific sport, other countries try to emulate them. Don’t you think the USA is not hurting when 3, not 1 but 3 Jamaican women ran 1-2-3 in the Women’s 100 metres final of the last Olympics? They are surely examining the makeup of Elaine Thompson-Herah after she broke Flo-Jo’s Olympic record and would be working round the clock to produce some quality woman athletes to get as close as possible to Thompson- Herah.
While some of T&T’s current athletes will be moving on to the senior ranks, I hope that the NAAATT officials will be giving them sustainable assistance for them not only to compete at that level but to actually have a feasible chance to medal at the upcoming 2022 Commonwealth games in England and eventually at the 2024 Olympics in France.
On the topic of sustainability, what about the Under-12 athletes? Now is the time to look at their potential and close the gap going forward so that T&T may not just win 92 medals but at least over 50. Wishful thinking?
Meanwhile, T&T’s Under-17 Women Soca Warriors are unfortunately proving to be no match for their competition in the 2022 CONCACAF Women’s U-17 Championship being held in Santo Domingo. Having lost heavily to both Panama (5-1) and Nicaragua (4-0) and with little hope to beat Mexico, there is no doubt that the Under-17 team was either not ready or frankly just not good enough for their competition. I empathise with the young women as they are obviously trying their best and giving 100 per cent, but they have been woefully outclassed and out-manoeuvred by their opposition.
Women’s football worldwide has reached a different level from how we looked at it a few years ago. The skill and fitness level, the mental approach, the coaching and the tactics have improved significantly, not only at the senior level but also at the junior level, and gone are the days when you just enter a team into an international competition purely for the exposure or experience.
I note that Trinidad and Tobago Women’s League Football (commonly referred to as WoLF) is looking to restart their competition locally but I sincerely hope they are placing emphasis on junior tournaments. It is all well and good to have senior women’s tournaments but the officials have to cater for the younger age groups more so as there has been no football at the Secondary schools level over the last 2 years.
So many of these youngsters have been deprived of the important development stage for many of them moving on from an Under-16 level to 18 and beyond. Many clubs would be looking at these women at the Under-17 level to draft them into their teams but I am not sure what many of them would have learned from the outing to the Dominican Republic. Some of these girls would have been also hoping for good performances to somehow secure scholarships abroad. That may sadly be a dream for most of them.
I await with bated breath for the return of T&T’s Under-17 Women’s football team to hear what went wrong from coach Jason Spence. Before the tournament started, he gave the impression that the team was well prepared and all things being equal, should do well.
