Lord Se­bastien Coe, Pres­i­dent of World Ath­let­ics, the gov­ern­ing body for the sport of track and field has hailed the re­gion­al Carif­ta Track and Field Games as the best ju­nior Cham­pi­onships for ath­letes in the world.

The two-time Olympic cham­pi­on in the 1,500 me­tres in 1980 and 1984, was speak­ing at the joint open­ing cer­e­mo­ny for both the Track and Field and Aquat­ics Carif­ta Games at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo, Port-of Spain, on Fri­day.

Lord Coe, the chair­man of the Lon­don Olympic Games 2012, said: “I’m de­light­ed to be here on the 52nd edi­tion of the Carif­ta Games. That in it­self is an ex­tra­or­di­nary achieve­ment, but six of those edi­tions have tak­en place in Trinidad and To­ba­go is ab­solute­ly tes­ta­ment to the im­por­tance and role that sport at every lev­el plays in this beau­ti­ful coun­try.

“This is my eighth Carif­ta Games. It is the first event that goes in­to my cal­en­dar every year and I’m de­light­ed on that ba­sis to be joined by many of my glob­al coun­cil mem­bers and col­leagues who al­so un­der­stand the im­por­tance of this event.”

Lord Coe not­ed that Mike Sands, Pres­i­dent of the North Amer­i­can, Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean Ath­let­ics As­so­ci­a­tion (NACAC) in his ad­dress ob­served that this is ar­guably the best ju­nior cham­pi­onship in the world, but Lord Coe went a step fur­ther.

“I rarely dis­agree with Mike Sands, but I’m go­ing to go one stage fur­ther. I don’t think this is ar­guable, this in ath­let­ics is the most im­por­tant ju­nior com­pe­ti­tion in the world,” boast­ed Lord Coe.

He al­so thanked T&T Olympic’s first-ever gold medal win­ner Hase­ly Craw­ford for be­ing an in­spi­ra­tion to him and so many ath­letes the world over.

Lord Coe said, “It’s al­so fit­ting that it should take place in this icon­ic Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um. One of my in­spi­ra­tions to join the ranks of in­ter­na­tion­al ath­let­ics was the ex­tra­or­di­nary per­for­mance, per­sona, pas­sion and com­mit­ment of Hase­ly, epit­o­mised in the ex­tra­or­di­nary 1976 Olympic 100m. Hase­ly, I’m glad you are with us to­day. I’m not sur­prised you’re sit­ting with the ath­letes on the fin­ish­ing line. Thank you for be­ing such an in­spi­ra­tional fig­ure to me and for the many of you who al­so know the im­pact that Hase­ly has had.”

Among oth­ers who ad­dressed the ath­letes and spec­ta­tors were World Aquat­ics pres­i­dent Cap­tain Hu­sain Al Musal­lam, who is al­so in T&T as part of a high-lev­el re­gion­al tour that in­cludes at­ten­dance at the pres­ti­gious Carif­ta Aquat­ics Cham­pi­onships, Pan Amer­i­can Aquat­ics Pres­i­dent Mau­reen Croes, Sport Com­pa­ny of T&T (SporTT) chair­man Lar­ry Ro­many, Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young, and Min­is­ter of Sports and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, Sham­fa Cud­joe.

The day’s ac­tiv­i­ties al­so in­clud­ed a walk past of the par­tic­i­pat­ing 28 coun­tries in both the Carif­ta Aquat­ics and Track and Field Cham­pi­onships to the mu­sic of the T&T Fire Ser­vice, T&T Prison Ser­vice and T&T Po­lice bands, Ta’zyah O’Con­nor, the 2023 Ca­lyp­so Monarch, BP Rene­gades pan­nist Em­manuel Joseph, and So­ca artist Er­phaan Alves.

Ac­tion at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um will get go­ing from 9 am this morn­ing while at the Na­tion­al Aquat­ic Cen­tre, Cou­va swim­ming al­so splash­es off from 9 am.

Sat­ur­day’s sched­ule

Morn­ing ses­sion

Boys U-20 Dec (100m, long jump, shot put)

Boys U-17 Oc­tathlon (100m, long jump)

Girls U-17/Boys U-17/Girls U-20/Boys U-20 400m (sem­fi­nal)

Girls U-17/Boys U-17/Girls U-20/Boys U-20 100m (sem­fi­nal)

Girls U-17 High jump (fi­nal)

Girls U-17 Javelin (fi­nal)

Girls U-20 Shot put (fi­nal)

Girls U-20 Javelin (fi­nal)

Af­tenoon ses­sion

Boys U-17 Triple jump (fi­nal)

Boys U-20 Dis­cus (fi­nal)

Boys 20 De­cathlon (high jump, 400m)

Boys U-17 Oc­tathlon (shot put, 400m)

Girls U-17/Boys U-17/Girls U-20/Boys U-20 400m (fi­nal)

Girls U-17/Boys U-17/Girls U-20/Boys U-20 1500m (fi­nal)

Girls Open Pole vault (fi­nal)

Girls U-20 Triple jump (fi­nal)

Spe­cial Olympics Boys & Girls 100m (fi­nal)

Girls U-17/Boys U-17-Girls U-20/Boys U-20 100m (fi­nal)