The Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee recently held its Annual General Meeting 2015 on April 28th at Olympic House, Port of Spain.  TTOC President, Mr. Brian Lewis used the occasion to remind member affiliates to remain passionate about the goals of the Olympic Movement, to use sport to educate and serve young people. These ideals are as relevant today as they were 2000 years ago.

Lewis also reiterated the TTOC's focus on helping the nation's athletes achieve 10 Gold Medals by 2024, and highlighted the TTOC’s three strategic pillars of Good Governance, Athlete Centred and Market Driven.  The TTOC continues to promote the adoption of good governance and ethics across the country’s Olympic and Commonwealth Sport Movement through Olympic Education which includes the Sport Administrators Course and the Advanced Sport Management Course.

At the meeting members were also able to receive, consider and approve the 2014 Annual Report and Audited Financial Statements by the TTOC.

Donations to the Athlete Welfare Fund can be made at Scotia Bank Account #171188

###

FOR THE first time in Trinidad and Tobago cycling history, the globally hunted prize of International Cycling Union (UCI) points will be up for grabs at this year’s edition of the National Elite, Junior and Masters Championships which pedals off at the Arima Velodrome from 7 pm today.

All contested events scheduled over the three-day meet have been officially sanctioned and accredited by the UCI and will also serve as trials for forthcoming tournaments such as the Pan American Games (May 10-26) in Toronto, Canada; Elite Pan American Championships (September) and the inaugural Caribbean Track Championships (May 2016).

Local riders have now been presented with a golden opportunity to amass UCI points right here on home soil, as previously compared to travelling to distant countries in an effort to enhance their qualification process. Cyclists will receive valuable UCI points towards their overall UCI ranking and towards their World Cup and Olympic qualification.

And returning once more to defend his coveted Match Sprint title is Olympian Njisane Phillip (Rigtech Sonics), who is already in the country preparing for this weekend’s races. He is again expected to square-off against locally-based sprinters Quincy Alexander, Justin Roberts (both of Team DPS) and club-mate Keron Bramble in the pace-filled sprint events.

Meanwhile, last year’s Junior Caribbean Road and Time Trial champion Akil Campbell (Rigtech Sonics) will be making his senior national debut in multiple endurance events. The youngster has proved to be a reckoning force on the senior circuit since his introduction in January and is deeply motivated to succeed against the division’s big guns such as Varun Maharajh (Rigtech Sonics), Jovian Gomez, Jude Codrington (both of Team DPS) and Gevan Samuel (The Braves). Speaking with the road racer yesterday, Campbell revealed that training at the senior level is indeed a challenge. “The senior and elite level is tough, but for National Championships so far, training has been good and I want to go out there and do my best for my club and myself,” said the budding cyclist. “Training has been difficult especially leading up to this year’s Nationals. I would like to qualify for the Pan Am Games and have set myself some required times that must be achieved in specific events to ensure qualification. I will be competing in the Omnium, Scratch Races, Keirin, Points Race and Pursuit.”

Additionally, Pan American golden girls Kollyn St George (Breakaway) and Keiana Lester (Bike Smith) will square-off against each other after the pair proudly represented the red, white and black at the just concluded Junior Pan Ams in Aguascalientes, Mexico, two weeks ago. Pan Am debutants and eventual medallists Sei Daniel and Tyler Cole will also be in action along the Arima track as they also warm-up for a hectic competitive season ahead.

Speaking with Trinidad and Tobago Cycling Federation (TTCF) president Robert Farrier yesterday, he also reiterated the importance of the 2015 tourney and explained that the structure of this year’s event has been aligned with those of other world renowned UCI-sanctioned events. “The structure for Nationals this year will be held in sessions,” Farrier noted. “We’ll have one session on Friday night, and a morning and evening session on Saturday and Sunday respectively. We have chosen to design the event in this way because all UCI-rated meets are conducted in this manner. We are also asking all fans of the sport to come out and support our riders because they will be looking to scorching the Arima track in sight of improved times, UCI points and Pan American qualification.”

Admission for the National Cycling Championships at the Arima Velodrome is free on all three nights.

Source

LAUSANNE—Former world boxing champion, T&T boxer Ria Ramnarine was one of eight coaches to graduate with honours distinction when the International Coaching Enrichment Certification Programme honoured its class of 2015 in a ceremony held at the International Olympic Committee headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, yesterday.

In addition to Ramnarine, the other coaches were Marcello Varriale from Brazil; Maria Victora Echavarria from Colombia; Stewart Velasco from El Salvador; Nigatu Worku Angasu from Ethiopia; Shiba Maggon from India; Eyyad Maghayreh from Jordan; and Yang Yu from the USA. The seventh edition of the ICECP—an intensive coaching education programme developed by the United States Olympic Committee, the University of Delaware and the IOC—included 33 coaches representing five continents, 33 countries and 14 sports.

The ICECP is conducted in partnership with Olympic Solidarity, an IOC program that provides financial assistance to National Olympic Committees around the world. Thus far, the ICECP has reached 198 participants from 23 sports and 87 countries over the seven-year history of the programme.

“Congratulations to the newest class of ICECP graduates,” said USOC CEO Scott Blackmun. “These coaches represent the future of the Olympic Movement, and their commitment to developing their personal skillset and advancing the global sports community is admirable.” Held at the University of Delaware; the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado; apprenticeship sites around the US; and the IOC headquarters, the ICECP began at the University of Delaware on September 20 and was conducted in four modules.

In the final module, participants presented the projects they completed over the course of the programme—which focused on improving coaching infrastructure in their home countries — to the ICECP academic board, and took part in a formal graduation ceremony featuring a keynote address by IOC Sports Director Kit McConnell and Simon Toulson, secretary general of the International Canoe Federation.

“It was a true honour to work with the USOC to put on a world-class program,me” said Dr Matthew Robinson, director of the ICECP and professor of sport management at the University of Delaware.

“The participants’ efforts were inspirational and I know all of them will make important contributions to their sport and the Olympic Movement for years to come. We look forward to year eight next year and passing the 200 participant mark. I am humbled to work with so many passionate people who contribute to the success of the programme.”

“Participation in the ICECP was an amazing experience,” said Marcello Varriale, a 2015 graduate from Brazil. “The content I learned at the University of Delaware and from the USOC staff was invaluable. The difference of the ICECP from other programmes is the sharing and learning from different countries and sports, and being able toa pply these ideas to my sport of rowing. In implementing my project, I discovered the importance of having a structured program. With that, I was able to develop coaching education in a structured manner to benefit the coaches in my sport and country.”

The 2014-15 programme included coaches from American Samoa, Austria, Antigua and Barbuda, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, People’s Republic of China, Colombia, Cook Islands, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Grenada, India, Jordan, Latvia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Malaysia, Maldives, Mozambique, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Serbia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Syria, T&T, USA and Uganda.

Source

Former Trinidad and Tobago coast guard commander Reginald Williams embarked upon an historic voyage yesterday as he attempts to complete the transatlantic journey from T&T to the United Kingdom.  The vessel The Legacy, will set sail for Antigua and then journey across the Atlantic Ocean to the Portuguese Azores, after which it will finish the journey, sailing to the Isle of Wight, England, where Williams and his crew will contest the Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week Regatta. Williams has been sailing for over 40 years and is continuing a family tradition that has spanned four generations. “This will be the last major campaign for The Legacy on our watch,” Williams told the Express yesterday. “We thought that there was no better way to send off The Legacy than to embark on this voyage.” The yacht will be sold to new owners after the voyage and the race. The sailor and his crew hope to create history. “This is the first time a team of West Indians will race on an indigenous boat in 180 years,” claimed Williams. It will also be the first time since 1960 that a voyage to the UK has been made by  Trinidadians in a local boat. There are of course some challenges as according to Williams, the crew was not designed originally for short manning. “Everyone needs to have a critical specialisation on board,” he said. “We are short-handed; the boat is not going be manoeuvred so everyone will be doing double duty.”  An enthused Williams hoped that with the journey he and his crew could inspire younger sailing fans. “The Atlantic run was something they were planning for a long time. We hope this race will inspire others in the sport,” said Williams. “We will do our best to make T&T proud of us.”

TRINIDAD and Tobago are the top-ranked of the 12 countries involved in the opening leg of CAZOVA (Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association) women’s beach qualifying for the Olympic Games. The tournament will be contested from today until Sunday in Jamaica and the countries which finish in the first six positions will advance to the second of four rounds of NORCECA (North, Central America and the Caribbean) qualifying for the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, which will be staged in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August next year. T&T, Curacao, United States Virgin Islands and Barbados, the four highest ranked countries, respectively, in this competition will receive byes into the second round and will only have to beat one country to move forward. The other countries involved are Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique, Suriname and host nation Jamaica. Each country will be represented by two pairs and Apphia Glasgow, La Teisha Joseph, Shenelle Gordon and Elki Philip will be flying the red, white and black flag. Glasgow and Joseph had the ideal preparation for this competition last weekend when they reached the quarter-finals when this year’s NORCECA (North, Central America and the Caribbean) Beach Tour served off in the Cayman Islands.  Glasgow, Gordon and Joseph are young and relatively inexperienced, but Philip is one of this country’s most accomplished players on the sand.

Source

Kuwait's Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah has been elected onto the FIFA Executive Committee after all his opponents competing for a two-year term withdrew during today's Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Congress in Manama.

Sheikh Ahmad, one of the most important powerbrokers in sport who is seen as a close ally of International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, will add the new responsibility to his existing roles as IOC member and President of both the Association of National Olympic Committees and the Olympic Council of Asia.

He will become the fourth IOC member on the Executive Committee, along with FIFA head Sepp Blatter, Cameroon's Confederation of African Football President Issa Hayatou and Burundi’s Lydia Nsekera, and is likely to play a key role liaising between the two bodies.

During today's meeting in the Bahraini capital - which is being attended by Sepp Blatter and all of his rivals for the FIFA Presidency - AFC head Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa has also been re-elected by acclamation for a fresh four-year term in office after no one stood against him.

Shaikh Salman will also now become a FIFA vice-president, replacing Presidential contender Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, as his term has come to an end.

Football Association of Malaysia President Prince Abdullah Al-Haj Ibni Sultan Hj Ahmad Shah received the highest number of votes to take on of the two other four-year FIFA Executive Committee positions, while the other was claimed by Japan Football Association vice-president, Kohzo Tashima.

This means Dato' Worawi Makudi of Thailand, a Committee member since 1997, has been voted off, while South Korea Football Association chief Chung Mong-gyu and Oman's Sayyid Khalid Hamed Hamood Al Busaidi were also unsuccessful.

Qatar Football Association vice-president Saoud Al Mohannadi had pulled out two days before the election, calling on West Asia to settle on one candidate.

Meanwhile, in a speech to open the meeting, Blatter praised Shaikh Salman, a staunch supporter in his Presidential re-election campaign, for steadying the AFC ship after his Qatari predecessor Mohammad Bin Hammam was banned from football in 2013.

He has shown “a remarkable sense of organisation and diplomacy to bring back the boat of the Asian Football Confederation, that at a certain time has been in waters that are not so very clear and not so very clean,” it was claimed.

The Swiss also praised the growth of the sport in Asia, quoting Chinese philosopher Confucius to justify how the FIFA development programme has helped engineer improvement.

"Confucius said, if you want to help your friend or your brother, don't give him a fish but teach him how to get fish," he outlined.

"This is the policy of our development programme, there is money available [but] I don't want to speak about money today."

As well as Prince Ali, both Luis Figo of Portugal and Royal Dutch Football Association head Michael van Praag were also present, although neither spoke formally during the Congress.

The trio will challenge heavy favourite Blatter next month during the FIFA Congress in Zurich on May 28 and 29.

Source