media_artricles :: 2013

T&T can rise again, thanks to our athletes

The opinions which were expressed by the track and field experts certainly left many with the impression that we shall be pushing all the best athletes for places on the medal rostrum in the IAAF track and field world championships in Moscow.

It is always refreshing to listen to the former stars and educated administrators, especially when their predictions have come true.

From that point onwards, the focus is placed firmly on the events and especially in which our stars are involved.

On this occasion, the early news did not set the platform for a memorable happening, as the news of two of our athletes tested positive before they faced the starter, depriving this country of the prospects of enjoying a big haul of medals.

The British press was upbeat about the form of their athletes and after such a magnificent Olympic haul at home, the sky seemed the limit to them.

Five days letter, the results appeared unproductive to most of our top sprinters and maybe the biggest shocker was the moderate display of throwing the javelin by young Olympic Gold medalist Kishorn Walcott.

How could it be logical that the Olympian whose rise to stardom made him a ray of hope for the future, and moments of joy for the lovers of sport.

Twenty seven places down the listseems unbelievable, although his recent efforts did not impress anyone who were following his progress.

As I reflected the events of the past two years, it was not difficult to understand the absence of high quality from the guys, maybe with the exception of Bledman in the sprints, Davis and Jehue Gordon.

The only one to show is their motion was the young UWI student whose dedication to the sport seemed to accompanied by excellent application.

This is not a statement in hindsight. I was attending a secondary schools football match last September at the HaselyCrawford stadium, and witnessed this youngster whose Olympic performances was potentially good, but not just enough to reach the top on London.

Because I had already written an article about the chances of Jehue and Njisane Phillips as the two athletes who would make us proud in the Brazil Olympics 2016, I felt the urge to invite myself to a conversation with this elegantly built quartermiler whose gliding over the hurdles had brought some interesting comments from the great Michael Johnson.

I took the time to congratulate him and reiterated my desire to see him win gold in Brazil.

In his most humble way, he promised to give of his best always.

Here I was, in the midst of a group of Grins in London running the best forty minutes that he had run since in his career.

All of a sudden, I felt that our small country has once again risen to a height which many only offered glimpse of a chance.

The impact was enough to shrug of the failures of the others and especially reduced the pain of our alleged drug users.

Of course, I still took the time to await the reasons for the mediocre performances of those who earned the respect and financial regard from the public purse to develop their potential and endorse their charges promises that they would lmedal.

Now we ust look to the relay events for further success and again, young Gordon may well be one to join the relay team in order to add to the medal rank.

Unfortunately, there was insufficient analysis given by the BBC presenters and I will remain glued to the media for reasons why our athletes were not able to come close to their Olympic performances.

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