Nicholas Baldeosingh,videographer with the TT Men's Hockey team,poses
with receptionists at the Comonwealth Games Village's opticiian's
centre,after receiving his first ever pair of spectacles at no cost.A
vast range of dental,optical and medical services are available to
athletes and officials at Glasgow 2014 entirely free of charge.
Trinidad and Tobago's contingent also has its own athlete-centred
medical team to attend to its personnel,headed by Doctors Terry
Ali,Anil Gopiesingh and Zynul Khan.Three physios and six massage
therapists are part of this team which,on a long day like Saturday 19
July,worked without a break from early morning to midnight.
"We have one hundred and twenty-nine athletes at this edition of the
Commonwealth Games," says Dr Ali."It's our biggest representation ever
at one of these Games.The demands on our staff are
enormous...andactual competition is still to begin!"
T&T are lucky so far in that there have been no major injuries or
illness scares.The mini-outbreak of vomiting and diarrhea that
affected 12 or so of the Scottish CWG assistants did not affect any
member of the contingent.
There have also been no positive drug tests among our athletes.The
Commonwealth Games have adopted a very rigorous approach to random
drug-testing on a round-the-clock basis.
"It has annoyed a few people," says Chef de Mission Ian Hypolite,"but
we must realise that this is now a serious business.Our contingent is
party to a Whereabouts policy,which means that our athletes must be at
a certain location at a given time for possible drug-testing.If they
are not,they are searched out and tested wherever they are".
Athletes may also be selected at random in the dining areas,or at
training,apart from the usual practice of post-competiion testing.The
aim is to provide an entirely drug-free Commonwealth Games 2014.