DOUGLAS CAMACHO, current chairman of the Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SporTT), is the new chairman of the Trinbago 2023 Local Organising Committee (LOC).

Camacho made the announcement during an appearance on the I95.5 Sports Show Thursday night.

He replaces former National Administration of Athletics Associations of Trinidad and Tobago (NAATT) president Ephraim Serrette at the helm. Serrette had occupied the position since last year.

"Unfortunately earlier on I had to be out of it, but Ephraim stepped up to the plate. Ephraim is now working within the Sport Company structure, doing a lot of development and other work," Camacho explained. "We do have him doing a lot of activity and the interesting thing about Ephraim in the context of this particular Games is the boxes he ticks."

Serrette, the current vice-president of the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) and the Trinidad and Tobago Commonwealth Games Association (TTCGA) who was a one-time advisor to the Minister of Sport and Community Development (MSCD) Shamfa Cudjoe, currently handles "critical development", within SporTT, according to Camacho.

Asked if Serrette was relieved because the load may have been too much, Camacho said: "..It was putting a lot of burden on Ephraim among other things...We were certainly burdening him unduly because you know Ephraim has a lot of experience working in the public sector...he really was ideal to hold the fort."

Despite Serrette's burden, Camacho said he is going to be an integral part of all the Commonwealth Youth Games activity. However, he gave no details as to the extent of Serrette's continued role.

"I am going to be leaning on him heavily because the reality is I physically will not be here for the Games. It is not a problem for me in that regard. All the members of the team are colleagues I have worked with over the years in one hat or the other," Camacho said.

He related that he and Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) president Dame Louise Martin had developed a relationship over the past "20 or 30 years" and he had resisted her call for him to be involved earlier.

"She really did say to me, 'really Douglas, you should step up and take the chair and I kind of begged off for a while. I want to say 'you can run but you can't hide'... So they kind of pulled me out and said take it and try and see us over the end and I have every confidence that we will," Camacho said.

About the disparity of sports split between the islands - Tobago will host four while Trinidad will host three - Camacho said logistics will be the biggest challenge.

"If you look at the number - and you have to understand that the chairman of the SporTT is a wannabe Tobagonian - I think it is evenly spread in numbers. If you look at the athletes in total, it is very evenly balanced and you have to remember as a country, when you are hosting 72 countries with a Games of this magnitude, just the athletes and officials are a few thousand. Your hotel plant in Trinidad and Tobago barely could accommodate it on aggregate."

Camacho made the announcement during an appearance on the I95.5 Sports Show Thursday night.

He replaces former National Administration of Athletics Associations of Trinidad and Tobago (NAATT) president Ephraim Serrette at the helm. Serrette had occupied the position since last year.

"Unfortunately earlier on I had to be out of it, but Ephraim stepped up to the plate. Ephraim is now working within the Sport Company structure, doing a lot of development and other work," Camacho explained. "We do have him doing a lot of activity and the interesting thing about Ephraim in the context of this particular Games is the boxes he ticks."

Serrette, the current vice-president of the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) and the Trinidad and Tobago Commonwealth Games Association (TTCGA) who was a one-time advisor to the Minister of Sport and Community Development (MSCD) Shamfa Cudjoe, currently handles "critical development", within SporTT, according to Camacho.

Asked if Serrette was relieved because the load may have been too much, Camacho said: "..It was putting a lot of burden on Ephraim among other things...We were certainly burdening him unduly because you know Ephraim has a lot of experience working in the public sector...he really was ideal to hold the fort."

Despite Serrette's burden, Camacho said he is going to be an integral part of all the Commonwealth Youth Games activity. However, he gave no details as to the extent of Serrette's continued role.

"I am going to be leaning on him heavily because the reality is I physically will not be here for the Games. It is not a problem for me in that regard. All the members of the team are colleagues I have worked with over the years in one hat or the other," Camacho said.

He related that he and Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) president Dame Louise Martin had developed a relationship over the past "20 or 30 years" and he had resisted her call for him to be involved earlier.

"She really did say to me, 'really Douglas, you should step up and take the chair and I kind of begged off for a while. I want to say 'you can run but you can't hide'... So they kind of pulled me out and said take it and try and see us over the end and I have every confidence that we will," Camacho said.

About the disparity of sports split between the islands - Tobago will host four while Trinidad will host three - Camacho said logistics will be the biggest challenge.

"If you look at the number - and you have to understand that the chairman of the SporTT is a wannabe Tobagonian - I think it is evenly spread in numbers. If you look at the athletes in total, it is very evenly balanced and you have to remember as a country, when you are hosting 72 countries with a Games of this magnitude, just the athletes and officials are a few thousand. Your hotel plant in Trinidad and Tobago barely could accommodate it on aggregate."