WAL­TER AL­IBEY

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

wal­ter.al­ibey@guardian.co.tt

For­mer Olympic cy­clist Njisane Phillip is call­ing for things to be done dif­fer­ent­ly in the sport of cy­cling if the coun­try’s rid­ers are to medal con­sis­tent­ly at in­ter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tions. 

Phillip, once adored for his sprint­ing speed, which en­abled him to be in the semi­fi­nals of the sprints of the 2012 Olympic Games in Lon­don, Eng­land, said the big na­tions are beat­ing us at that game over and over again. “And the sad thing is that we can repli­cate that right here and get the re­sults we want to get. We have to be com­pet­i­tive, and that could on­ly come if there is a struc­ture to the way the na­tion­al teams are picked and the rid­ers are pre­pared,” Phillip ex­plained. 

Much like what is done in foot­ball, Phillip, the win­ner of mul­ti­ple medals at all in­ter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tions, is propos­ing that a na­tion­al coach be cho­sen to head a pro­gramme, as was done when Cana­di­an Erin Hartwell, was the for­mer Tech­ni­cal Di­rec­tor and head coach of the na­tion­al sys­tem, a few years ago. 

He ex­plained that na­tion­al rid­ers are then cho­sen for the pro­gramme. 

“The rid­ers, who are nor­mal­ly at their re­spec­tive clubs in the coun­try, will be tak­en away for na­tion­al ses­sions un­der the na­tion­al coach, who­ev­er he/she will be. This means that the best rid­ers in the coun­try will com­pete against the best, there­by push­ing each oth­er to go faster and faster.” 

Ac­cord­ing to Phillip, “With this sys­tem, there is bound to be an im­prove­ment in time and the stan­dard of rid­ing; I can guar­an­tee that.”

Phillip’s call comes on the heels of the re­cent Ju­nior World Cham­pi­onships in Chi­na, where on­ly his pro­tege, Makaira Wal­lace, claimed two medals and said, “It is a long, hard road ahead; how­ev­er, our per­for­mance at the Ju­nior Worlds proves that we have good tal­ent in T&T. It al­so proves that we have good coach­es in the coun­try to do the job, and it can hap­pen once every­one is giv­en a fair chance.” 

“I think the prob­lem is that there are too many egos at the top while the ath­letes suf­fer,” Phillip said. 

His en­try in­to coach­ing has been a wel­comed one for many young bud­ding tal­ent, with many ben­e­fit­ing from his de­vel­op­ment ini­tia­tives. Since then, there have been calls for the ex-Olympian to be a na­tion­al coach for the ju­nior team. 

“When Hartwell was coach of the team, all the rid­ers ben­e­fit­ted by show­ing marked im­prove­ment. This is what hap­pens when rid­ers are be­ing pushed to their lim­it and be­yond; they im­prove their stan­dard.” We have enough coach­es here in T&T to do the job, but we just need to have struc­ture, and we have to be on the same page. With this, we will be able to set the bar very high and en­sure that we win medals at every Pan Am and oth­er in­ter­na­tion­al events.