From No­vem­ber 8-10, 14 coun­tries will unite in the spir­it of sports, fun, and in­clu­sion for the first Spe­cial Olympics Re­gion­al Beach Games, host­ed in T&T. The Dig­i­cel Foun­da­tion is one of the event’s main spon­sors, con­tribut­ing $135,000 to the Games.

Spe­cial Olympics T&T (SOTT) is the on­ly Spe­cial Olympics pro­gramme that cur­rent­ly in­cludes the Beach Games as an an­nu­al mul­ti-sport event and has done so since 2016.

This new re­gion­al event will bring to­geth­er 130 ath­letes, 70 coach­es, and del­e­gates from Spe­cial Olympics pro­grammes across the Caribbean and North Amer­i­ca to com­pete in a va­ri­ety of beach sports, in­clud­ing Aquathlon, Beach Boc­ce, Beach Soc­cer, Beach Vol­ley­ball and Open Wa­ter Swim­ming, at venues in both Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“The ded­i­ca­tion and com­mit­ment demon­strat­ed by our spe­cial ath­letes and coach­es is noth­ing short of in­spir­ing,” said Pen­ny Gomez, CEO of the Dig­i­cel Foun­da­tion.

“It’s a great ho­n­our for T&T to have been se­lect­ed to host the in­au­gur­al Spe­cial Olympics Re­gion­al Beach Games, and this recog­ni­tion of our very own SOTT is very well-de­served.”

Lo­cal ath­letes and coach­es have been train­ing hard in prepa­ra­tion for the Games. Spe­cial Olympics Aquat­ics head coach Patrick Lee Loy pro­vid­ed in­sight in­to their rig­or­ous train­ing regime.

He said, “The ath­letes are train­ing 6 days per week. Their work­outs con­sist of at least three pool ses­sions cov­er­ing 1,200m to 2,200m. Dur­ing the week they have a mix­ture of pro­gres­sion run, tem­po run and grass run that will be from 30 min­utes to 40 min­utes. The ath­letes al­so have two cross-train­ing days that in­clude pushups, squats, lunges and planks. On Sun­days, we com­bine the swim and the beach run at Mara­cas Beach. We start at 7.10 am. Af­ter the swim, the ath­letes will run for 15 to 30 min­utes along the beach. The week be­fore the com­pe­ti­tion they will cut back on their work­outs and have a few rest days.”

In a re­lease, the Dig­i­cel Foun­da­tion shared it "is proud to con­tin­ue its long-term part­ner­ship with the SOTT in this sig­nif­i­cant re­gion­al ven­ture".