The ‘You Go Girl’ pan­el dis­cus­sion and Girls Run TT re­turn this year as the Min­istry of Sport and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment launched the Pink Reign Cam­paign at the Hilton Con­fer­ence Cen­tre in Port-of-Spain on Wednes­day.

The Pink Reign pro­grammes aim to en­cour­age and sup­port the de­vel­op­ment of women and girls through­out T&T. This year marks five years in ex­is­tence and, ac­cord­ing to the Min­is­ter of Sport and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, Sham­fa Cud­joe-Lewis, it has in­creased aware­ness and par­tic­i­pa­tion in the dif­fer­ent as­pects of sports and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty.

“I’m hap­py to see five years in­to the pro­gramme," said the Sports Min­is­ter. "As we cel­e­brate five years of the Pink Reign cam­paign, the pro­gramme has de­vel­oped so beau­ti­ful­ly over the years.”

Re­flect­ing on a past in­ci­dent, Cud­joe-Lewis re­called her ear­ly days as the new­ly elect­ed Min­is­ter of Sport and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment. She stat­ed there were some doubts about whether she would be a great fit for the po­si­tion but she looked past the com­ments and worked to­wards ad­vanc­ing the gov­ern­ment’s plans in sports. The Pink Reign pro­gramme is one of those ad­vance­ments that turned out great for sports and the com­mu­ni­ty.

Her re­sponse then was: “I’m no ath­lete and sports is not my forte, how­ev­er, I’m here to ad­vance the gov­ern­ment's man­date. I don’t con­sid­er my­self an ath­lete. I’m a road­run­ner.”

The Pink Reign cam­paign fo­cus­es on four pil­lars in­clud­ing - Con­ver­sa­tions with Women and Girls, the Life Skills Work­shop, Girls Run TT, and the Let Her Play mod­ule.

The Girls Run TT pro­gramme, which was first launched in 2021, is an in-per­son or vir­tu­al race. The "Let Her Play" pro­gramme has three com­po­nents "Dance, Jump and Cheer", "Girl, De­fend Your­self," and "Keep On Mov­ing."

Young girls and women learn sport­ing skills and ba­sic self-de­fense and al­so par­tic­i­pate in aer­o­bics and Zum­ba.

The "Con­ver­sa­tions with Women and Girls" gives in­sight in­to the jour­ney of girls and women who suc­ceed in sports. Where­as, the Life Skills Work­shop is a pro­gramme on ca­reer plan­ning in sports. It al­so in­volves self-mar­ket­ing and brand cre­ation, net­work­ing, dress­ing for suc­cess, eti­quette, pub­lic speak­ing, and in­ter­view skills.

At this year’s event, the or­gan­is­ers award­ed sev­er­al women for their par­tic­i­pa­tion in the 2023 Girls Run TT.

In the youngest par­tic­i­pant cat­e­go­ry, nine-year-old Arya Joseph took the ti­tle as she ran 298.38 miles. The most se­nior par­tic­i­pant award went to In­grid Muriell. The 74-year-old ran a to­tal of 498.07 miles. The most en­gaged on so­cial me­dia award went to Gabrielle Barkley. Barkley ran 296.76 miles.

The Pink Reign Pan­thers took the award for the largest group of fin­ish­ers with 3284.71 miles, while Team Poon took sec­ond place with 1998.23.

There were al­so the top ten recog­ni­tions on the Pink Reign board for 2023. Rep­re­sent­ing no team was La­toya Thomp­son-Ja­cod in num­ber three with 1010.57 miles. Up ahead was Lo­raine Phillip from the CAR­IFIN team with 1047.97 miles. Ar­i­an­na Jean­nine Par­ma, who achieved 1500.09 miles, re­ceived the top recog­ni­tion award.

AWARDS

Youngest par­tic­i­pant: Arya Joseph (298.38 miles)

Most Se­nior par­tic­i­pant: In­grid Muriell (498.07 miles)

Most en­gaged on so­cial me­dia: Gabrielle Barkley (296.76 miles)

The largest group of fin­ish­ers: Pink Reign Pan­thers (3284.71 miles) and Team Poon (1998.23 miles)

Pink Reign Pan­thers

Natasha Si­mon-John (561.26), Ali­cia Hospedales (543.74), Petronel­la Solomon (408.16), Ge­niel Bai­ley (407.84), Jer­mice Clarke (379.74), Joan­na Fid­dler (372.67), Janelle Jef­frey-Joseph (315.27), An­geli­na Brown (296.03).

Team Poon

Nir­van­na Maraj (288.08), Daniela Poon Mene­ses (286.75), Brigid Poon-Lewis (286.03), Jean­nie Sam­lals­ingh (285.13), Valen­tine Lum Young (285), An­nette Mar­ques (283.56), Frances Lum Youn (283.56), Julie Lum Young-Ash­man (283.25).

Top 10 recog­ni­tion on the Pink Reign Board 2023

Ar­i­ana Jean­nine Par­ma (1500.09), Lo­raine Phillip -CAR­IFIN (1047.97), La­toya Thomp­son-Ja­cob (110.57), Mar­garet Wong Chong (868.32), She­li­fa Mo­hammed (846.10), Mau­reen Hamil­ton - One More Mile (837.11), Daphne Par­ris (787.26), Wa­hee­da Alexan­der (777.35), Naadiya Mo­hammed (693.18), Davi Ramkallawan (677.10)