In­de­pen­dent ath­letes Kadeem Brown and Chiké Sam were among the top per­form­ers in the Spe­cial Olympics T&T (SOTT) Na­tion­al Games over the week­end.

On Sat­ur­day (May 24), the D’ Di­al Fit­ness Club at Long Cir­cu­lar Mall, St James, echoed with the cheers and de­ter­mi­na­tion of pow­er­lifters push­ing their lim­its. The mo­men­tum car­ried in­to Sun­day (May 25) as the eques­tri­an com­pe­ti­tion took cen­tre stage at the Po­lice Mount­ed & K-9 Branch in Long Cir­cu­lar, St James, where ath­letes and hors­es worked in per­fect har­mo­ny to the de­light of an en­thu­si­as­tic crowd.

Brown was the top ath­lete in the pow­er­lift­ing com­pe­ti­tion. He lift­ed a to­tal of 865 lbs - 315 in the squat event, 205 in the bench bress abd 345 in the dead­lift in Frame 4. In sec­ond place was Damien Mar­quis, al­so com­pet­ing in­de­pen­dent­ly, with 785 lbs (255/185/345) and in third spot, Kadafie An­tho­ny of St Ann's Hos­pi­tal with 425 lbs (120/90/215). In fourth place was Jay­don Hug­gins of Palmeras Learn­ing Cen­tre 420 lbs (105/100/215).

Sam com­pet­ed in eques­tri­an and shined in the BI – Dres­sage – Test 1 (Walk – Trot) aboard Anes­ta. He fin­ished ahead of Ann Faith Mc Ken­sie (In­de­pen­dent),w hose mount was Ja­son and third-placed Des­tiny Jones (In­de­pen­dent) aboard Je­di.

Ath­letes of all abil­i­ties cap­ti­vat­ed au­di­ences, em­body­ing the true spir­it of the Spe­cial Olympics oath: “Let me win, but if I can­not win, let me be brave in the at­tempt.” Their strength, courage, and de­ter­mi­na­tion res­onat­ed deeply with all in at­ten­dance.

Ma­jor David Ben­jamin, Chair­man of SOTT, said, “Eques­tri­an holds a tru­ly unique place with­in our or­gan­i­sa­tion, not on­ly as an ex­cit­ing sport, but al­so as a pow­er­ful form of ther­a­py for ath­letes on the autism spec­trum and those with Down Syn­drome. We are deeply grate­ful to the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice for their un­wa­ver­ing part­ner­ship and stead­fast com­mit­ment to em­pow­er­ing ath­letes with in­tel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties, par­tic­u­lar­ly through their sup­port in train­ing and host­ing eques­tri­an com­pe­ti­tions.

"De­spite the chal­lenges posed by un­pre­dictable weath­er, our ath­letes’ re­silience and de­ter­mi­na­tion were noth­ing short of in­spir­ing. Their per­se­ver­ance al­lowed them to com­plete the com­pe­ti­tion and earn well-de­served medals, em­body­ing the very spir­it of the Spe­cial Olympics. I ex­tend my deep­est thanks to our ded­i­cat­ed vol­un­teers, whose pas­sion and sup­port make these achieve­ments pos­si­ble. We look for­ward to wel­com­ing every­one at our up­com­ing month-long SOTT Na­tion­al Games, where the spir­it of in­clu­sion and ex­cel­lence will con­tin­ue to shine.”

Par­tic­i­pants from in­sti­tu­tions such as Palmeras Learn­ing Cen­tre, Im­mortelle, Cas­cade Life Cen­tre, New Be­gin­ning, Kids Space, Good­will In­dus­tries, Na­tion­al Cen­tre for Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties (NCPD), La­dy Ho­choy Vo­ca­tion­al Cen­tre, St Ann's Hos­pi­tal, La­dy Ho­choy Pe­nal, La­dy Ho­choy Home Gas­par­il­lo, La­dy Ho­choy School, Gas­par­il­lo, La­dy Ho­choy Vo­ca­tion­al Cen­tre, La­dy Ho­choy Ari­ma, St Mary's School, and sev­er­al in­de­pen­dent ath­letes show­cased their skills in ath­let­ics, pow­er­lift­ing, and eques­tri­an. Un­der the guid­ance of their ded­i­cat­ed coach­es, ath­letes per­formed with con­fi­dence and en­thu­si­asm, earn­ing well-de­served ac­co­lades, medals, and rib­bons.

Rick­son Pow­der, Tech­ni­cal Ad­min­is­tra­tor Sport at the Min­istry of Sport and Youth Af­fairs, high­light­ed the Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to in­clu­sion, “The Min­istry is ded­i­cat­ed to sup­port­ing ac­tiv­i­ties that in­te­grate Spe­cial Olympics ath­letes with those from main­stream schools. T&T is now the sec­ond Caribbean coun­try to sign the Glob­al Coali­tion for In­clu­sion. We are look­ing for­ward to more train­ing, ca­pac­i­ty build­ing, and in­clu­sive in­ter­ac­tions that al­low ath­letes of all abil­i­ties to learn, play, and grow to­geth­er”.

Al­so on Sat­ur­day, the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo, Port-of-Spain pulsed with ex­cite­ment as ath­letes blazed down the track and soared over hur­dles.

The ac­tion in the SOTT Na­tion­al Games, sup­port­ed by Dig­i­cel Foun­da­tion, Blue Wa­ters Lim­it­ed, and the Min­istry of Sport and Youth Af­fairs, con­tin­ues Wednes­day (May 28) to Shaw Park Recre­ation Grounds, To­ba­go, from 8.30 am.

Re­sults

Eques­tri­an

De­vel­op­men­tal - Shapes

Event 1: 1 Zachary Tyrell (Palmeras)/Jay­la (Palmeras), 2 Re­ece Mo­hammed (Palmeras)/Han­ni­bal, 3 Imani Price (Im­mortelle)/Har­ry

Event 2: 1 Jabari Baird (New Be­gin­ning)/Har­ry, 2 Aidan An­mols­ingh (Kid­space)/Ich­a­bod, 3 Aden Burke (New Be­gin­ning)/Har­ry

Event 3: 1 Zaiden Birch­wood (Palmeras)/Jay­la, 2 Je­nai Scope (Palmeras)/Ich­a­bod, 3 Bryce Ram­lal (Kid­space)/Han­ni­bal

Event 4: 1 Jonathon Hug­ging (New Be­gin­ning)/Jay­la, 2 An­to­nio Charles (Im­mortelle)/Har­ry, 3 Shomai Adams (Im­mortelle)/Han­ni­bal

Event 5: 1 Gio­van­ni Suther­land (Im­mortelle)/Har­ry, 2 Sarah Ram­di­al (Im­mortelle)/Jay­la, 3 Christi­na Mar­tin (Im­mortelle)/Ich­a­bod

Event 6: 1 Ste­fan Ay­oung (Kid­space)/Har­ry, 2 Sarah Per­sad (La­dy Ho­choy VC)/Je­di, 3 Sion Achille (New Be­gin­ning)/Ich­a­bod

De­vel­op­men­tal -Egg/Ball and Spoon

Event 7: 1 Jadon King (La­dy Ho­choy VC)/Jay­la, 2 Liam O’Bri­an (Kid­space)/Ich­a­bod, 3 Ky-mani Ed­wards (Kid­space)/Har­ry

Event 8: 1 Rhi­an King (La­dy Ho­choy VC)/Ich­a­bod, 2 Khal­i­fa Gilbert (La­dy Ho­choy VC)/Jay­la, 3 Ne­muel Hunter (La­dy Ho­choy VC)/Han­ni­bal

CS – Work­ing­Trail

Event 9: 1 Daniel Tex­iera (Im­mortelle)/Ich­a­bod, 2 Jay­den Demp­ster (Palmeras)/Har­ry, 3 An­dres Granville (In­de­pen­dents)/Han­ni­bal

Event 10: 1 Ca­den Ed­wards (New Be­gin­ning)/Ich­a­bod, 2 Je­lani Hug­gins (Palmeras)/Jay­la, 3 Dario Ja­cob Life Cen­tre/Har­ry

CI –Dres­sage –Test2 (Walk)

Event 11; 1 Eli­jah Patrick (Good­will)/Han­ni­bal, 2 Eli­jah Obed (Good­will)/Ja­son, 3 Christi­na Ed­wards (New Be­gin­ning)/Je­di

BI – Dres­sage – Test 1 (Walk – Trot)

Event 12: 1 Chiké Sam (In­de­pen­dent)/Anes­ta, 2 Ann Faith Mc Ken­sie (In­de­pen­dent)/Ja­son, 3 Des­tiny Jones (In­de­pen­dent)/Je­di

Pow­er­lift­ing

Com­bi­na­tion lifts

Frame 1: 1 Au­ri­um Grant (Good­will ) 370 lbs, 2 Je­lani Hug­gins (Palmeras) 270 lbs, 3 Kern For­tune (In­de­pen­dent) 200 lbs

Frame 2: 1 Eli­jah Obed (Good­will) 530 lbs, 2 Josi­ah Jones (Good­will) 475 lbs, 3 Ser­gio Williams (Good­will) 440 lbs

Frame 3: 1 Drex­el Joseph (In­de­pen­dent) 540 lbs, 2 Makiri Walk­er (In­de­pen­dent) 445 lbs, 3 Lemuel Har­ry (Palmeras) 200 lbs

Frame 4: 1 Kadeem Brown (In­de­pen­dent) 865 lbs, 2 Damien Mar­quis (In­de­pen­dent) 785 lbs, 3 Kadafie An­tho­ny (St Ann’s Hos­pi­tal) 425 lbs

Frame 5: 1 Abi­anne Isaac (In­de­pen­dent) 500 lbs, 2 Adam Lawrence In­de­pen­dent 420 lbs, 3 Dario Ja­cobs (Cas­cade Life Cen­tre) 310 lbs