A 29-mem­ber del­e­ga­tion was named for the Spe­cial Olympics World Games in Ger­many from June 17-25.

Some 17 ath­letes will rep­re­sent T&T in four sport­ing dis­ci­plines–ath­let­ics, Eques­tri­an, pow­er­lift­ing, swim­ming–at the 16th edi­tion of the Games. Over the nine days, ath­letes with in­tel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties com­pete to­geth­er in 26 sports.

Hun­dreds of ath­letes and sup­port­ers gath­ered at St Mary’s Col­lege grounds for the clos­ing cer­e­mo­ny of the Spe­cial Olympics T&T (SOTT) Na­tion­al Games on May 27 and amongst the many high­lights of the day was the an­nounce­ment of the T&T del­e­ga­tion that will be at­tend­ing the Games in host city, Berlin.

Loud cheers, ap­plause, and tears of joy fol­lowed the Flame of Hope along the fi­nal leg of the Olympic Torch Re­lay that com­menced at the clos­ing cer­e­mo­ny. For many, this marked an im­por­tant mo­ment of restora­tion af­ter the pan­dem­ic’s two-year pause on the Games. The Flame was first lit two weeks ago dur­ing the Na­tion­al Games open­ing cer­e­mo­ny and was then car­ried around the coun­try to the Games by the T&T Law En­force­ment Torch Run­ners (LETR), led by Po­lice Sergeant Seemu­n­gal and Fire Of­fi­cer Leon Haz­zard.

At the clos­ing cer­e­mo­ny, the Flame was passed to De­sha Clif­ford, Chair of the Dig­i­cel T&T Foun­da­tion, cor­po­rate spon­sor of SOTT, and then on to ath­lete Melis­sa Nanan, who, along­side Clif­ford, Fire Of­fi­cer Haz­zard and the T&T Law En­force­ment Torch Run­ners (LETR), made a lap around the grounds be­fore light­ing the caul­dron.

For over a decade, the Dig­i­cel Foun­da­tion has been the cor­po­rate spon­sor and part­ner of the SOTT, cham­pi­oning the caus­es of those with spe­cial needs in T&T. This year, Dig­i­cel and the Dig­i­cel Foun­da­tion have in­vest­ed a to­tal of TT$330,000 to­wards the SOTT Na­tion­al Games, the SOTT del­e­ga­tion’s trav­el to the World Games in Berlin, and the year-round op­er­a­tions of the SOTT Sec­re­tari­at at Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um in Mara­bel­la.

The fi­nal day of the SOTT Na­tion­al Games in­clud­ed foot­ball at the St Mary’s Grounds and aquat­ics at the Diego Mar­tin swim­ming pool. The clos­ing cer­e­mo­ny end­ed the day’s ac­tiv­i­ties on a ju­bi­lant note with a gala con­cert, fea­tur­ing per­for­mances from lo­cal Gospel artistes Saman­tha John­son and evan­ge­list Melis­sa Pre­cious Brown; sax­o­phon­ist Cur­tis Bris­bane; singer Mel­ly Rose; the reign­ing Ca­lyp­so Monarch, Ta’Zyah O’Con­nor, and the show­stop­per, Nishard M.

T&T's del­e­ga­tion

Ath­let­ics: Nathan Mc Clean, Cadell Cuffy, D’An­dre Mc Guirk, Ter­shana Tem­pro, La Toya Charles, Melis­sa Nanan.

Staff: Lyn­dell Hoyte-Sanchez (coach), Stephen Ralph (coach)

Eques­tri­an: Aaron Ben Ali, Nathaniel Lewis, Omari Pat­ter­son, Eli­jah Obed, Patrice Pen­nie.

Staff: Wa­heed Mullar (coach), Lisa Whar­wood (coach).

Pow­er­lift­ing: Malachi Sylvester, Kadafie An­tho­ny.

Staff: Richard John­son (coach), Sher­ry Ann Lee (coach)

Swim­ming: Trent Bethel, Dono­van Garib, Sha­nia Su­ru­jbal­ly, Vic­to­ria Samuel.

Staff: Stephen Telfer (coach), William Carr (coach)

Of­fi­cials: Ma­jor David Ben­jamin (Head of Del­e­ga­tion), Clay­ton William (As­sis­tant Head of Del­e­ga­tion), Dr Ma­ia Black­man (Med­ical Staff), Can­dace Young (as­sis­tant staff - me­dia)