Mikel Thomas opens his bid for a North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Senior Championship medal in San Jose, Costa Rica, this afternoon.

Thomas, who captured men’s 110 metres hurdles silver at last month’s Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada, is tipped for top honours in Costa Rica. The Trinidad and Tobago athlete clocked a national record time of 13.17 seconds in the Pan Am Games final. He is the fastest man in the NACAC field.

Michelle-Lee Ahye. Lalonde Gordon, Ayanna Alexander and Emmanuel Callender will also be on show for T&T in today’s opening session.

Ahye and American Barbara Pierre look evenly matched in the women’s 100m. Of the sprinters on the entry list, Pierre has the fastest clocking this year, 10.92 seconds, while Ahye is second at 10.97. Ahye and Pierre share a personal best of 10.85 seconds. Pierre, however, goes into the NACAC women’s century with a competitive edge. She earned bronze at the Pan Am Games in 11.01 seconds. Ahye, on the other hand, ran in a comeback race in the United States on Saturday after more than five weeks away from competition because of injury. She finished second in 11.29.

Reyare Thomas is the other T&T sprinter listed for action in the women’s 100m.

Gordon is expected to challenge for the men’s 400m title. Among the other contenders for the one-lap crown are Dominican Republic’s Pan Am Games champion Luguelin Santos, Costa Rican Nery Brenes and American Marcus Chambers.

T&T will also be represented by Tacumar Sterling in the men’s 400m.

Alexander should be in the hunt for precious metal in the women’s triple jump.

And Callender will be the lone T&T sprinter in action in the men’s 100m event.

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Walcott very proud of Pan Am gold

Keshorn Walcott is proud, very proud of his Pan American Games men’s javelin gold medal.

“All championships are important to me, no matter what the level. I set myself some goals and Pan Am was one of them, so the gold medal was a big achievement for me.”

When he arrived in Toronto, Canada, last month, 22-year-old Walcott was battling an ankle injury and not certain to compete.

“Coming off my last competition in Monaco, I couldn’t walk for two or three days. I had to be whee l-chaired through the airport coming all the way to Canada. The decision was for me not to throw, but me and my harden self, I tend not to listen to too much people. I tend to try to find my answers in my mind.

“I took the risk,” the 2012 Olympic champion continued, “because something told me to take it. We spoke about the ankle before with the doctors and stuff. It seemed like my season was over, so I just told myself I don’t think I could do too much more harm to my ankle, so at least let me achieve one of my goals for the entire year if I have to finish up my season. I think God blessed me. I went out, I took the risk, and now I’m still able to continue.”

Walcott was the class of the field at last month’s Pan Am Games, striking gold with an 83.27 metres throw.

“It means a lot to me, knowing that I haven’t been winning that much since the Olympic Games. That was kind of a confidence boost for me. No matter the level of competition, I’m back on top. Going forward, it will set some standards for me, knowing that I added Pan Am champion to my list.”

Walcott does not relish the limelight, but could not avoid it following his 2012 Olympic triumph. He is grateful there’s no more Walcottmania in T&T.

“It died down a bit, so it’s better now. You still go places and people come at you asking for pictures and what not, but I think I’m handling it okay. And now that I’m a lot more busy, I’m out of the country a lot, it’s easier for me. I don’t have that much downtime to be out. When I train, it’s train, home, different things, so people don’t see me that much. It’s a little bit easier for me now.”

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THE SIXTY-FOUR TT athletes who competed at the World Special Olympics Summer Games in Los Angeles came away with far more than medals and ribbons. That was the view of Ferdinand Bibby, National Director for the TT Special Olympics (SOTT) as he spoke exclusively with Newsday on his return with the second half of the TT contingent on Monday night.

Bibby said the LA experience met the objectives of the movement’s mission statement.

“That’s one of the aims — to express joy to the athletes,” he said, as they reunited with their loved ones in the Arrivals lounge at the Piarco International Airport. “Special Olympics always brings out joy.

So while there was competition, you would see athletes, after they compete, hug each other, give each other high-fives; and when they go back to the games village they would be talking to each other, exchanging pins. There was always the element of celebration — celebrating the achievements of the athletes, as well as their performances, whether it was gold or ribbon performance.” TT earned 48 medals, including 15 gold and nine silver. Asked what moments in competition stood out, Bibby responded, “We try to celebrate all the athletes’ achievements and to stay way from elitism. But when you look at Joanna Piango (English Equitation) as well as Alicia Khan (Bocce) who are two of the younger athletes in the group, and their ability to go out there and perform at the high level, that would be something to look forward to for the future.” Among TT’s major successes was the triumphant seven-a-side football team, which defeated Barbados 2-1 in the gold medal game.

The captain, Devant Mahadeo said his players had been confident they would go one better than their silver medal performance in 2011, adding that their greatest challenge had come earlier in the competition.

“Hong Kong,” he said, with a smile. “But we win them (4-2).

They gave us a great fight.” Away from the competition, the Games organisers managed to provide more than just an enjoyable atmosphere for almost 7,000 athletes.

“In the USA campus alone there were 5,000 athletes, and in each campus there was a games village, where the athletes were encouraged to mingle, they were encouraged to experience the various cultures,” Bibby said.

Describing the facilities at the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of Los Angeles (UCLA) as state-of-theart, he singled out the Healthy Athletes facility for special mention.

“Many of the persons with intellectual disabilities have health issues, whether it is their physical health. So part of Special Olympics is offering healthy athlete screening where they are screened for vision, they are screened for dental work, they are screened for nutrition, and given advice. “One of the features also was that each athlete was given a pair of sneakers — 7,000 athletes given a pair of New Balance sneakers on being screened for their healthy feet in the Healthy Athlete campaign. So besides competition, it was also about the athletes’ welfare.” Bibby praised the TT coaches and assistants, noting that they were all volunteers. “So they did it for the love of the athlete, for the interaction, the sense of pride when you would have trained someone and see them perform and achieve at the highest level.” On a parting note, the National Director made a plug for better training facilities for the special athletes and greater exposure to competition. “We always say at Special Olympics, access means more than a ramp or an elevator; it means access to opportunities, access to funding, access to a sporting space where the national governing bodies could offer a vision or a grouping or a category for their national events, because some of our athletes only compete once a year,” he said. “So that with regular access to competition, you would see a greater achievement in performance.” The dates and venue for the XV Summer Games (2019) will be announced at the Winter Games in Austria (2017).

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Port of Spain, Trinidad. The Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) hosted a ‘One year to Rio 2016’ acknowledgement at Olympic House in unison with the rest of the world in marking the one-year countdown to Rio 2016 Olympic Games on August 5th.

The TTOC used this landmark day to celebrate the road to Rio and  commemorate the athletes that have achieved excellence at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto.

The proceedings opened with a short video presentation highlighting team TTO’s performance at the recently concluded 2015 Pan American Games. TTOC’s President, Brian Lewis, reinforced the vision of achieving the 10 or more gold medals by the year 2024. “Toronto 2015 and the performances of our athletes started to make some people believe that it (#10Golds24)
may have been possible; that it wasn’t far fetched and unrealistic,” he stated.

“Rio 2016 therefore, in the context of 10 or more Olympic gold medals by the year 2024 is going
to be very important because thereafter comes Tokyo 2020 and then 2024,” he continued.

Toronto 2015 Chef de Mission, Diane Henderson led the Trinidad and Tobago Pan American
Games contingent of 180 athletes and officials in fourteen different sporting disciplines. The
T&T contingent left Toronto with 8 medals, surpassing the medal haul of the Guadalajara
Games in 2011.

In celebration of the one-year mark to the Rio Olympics 2016, the TTOC presented Trinidad
and Tobago’s medalists from the 2015 Pan American Games with their medal bonuses. Of the
13 athletes were Keshorn Walcott, Dan-Neil Telesford and Emmanuel Callender.

The complete list of medal winners include: Cleopatra Borel, Keshorn Walcott, George Bovell
III, Njisane Phillip, Mikel Thomas (Individual medalist), Rondel Sorrillo, Emmanuel Callender,
Keston Bledman Dan-Neil Telesford (4 x 100m Relay team), Renny Quow, Jarrin Solomon,
Machel Cedenio and Emmanuel Mayers (4 x 400m Relay team).

With the conclusion of the Pan American Games, the TTOC moves forward with full force in
preparation for the Olympics in 2016. The games will take place from 5th – 21st August 2016 in
four regions throughout the city.

Thank you to other distinguished guests Olympic gold medalist Hasley Crawford, President of
the National Association of Athletics Administration Ephraim Serette and Senator Elton
Prescott SC for attending.

The TTOC would also like to thank our official partners Guardian Group Limited, National
Lotteries Control Board (NLCB), Toyota, Lisa Communications, ScotiaBank, Adidas, BPTT,
Columbus Communications for their continued support.