...Borel-Brown just wants to have fun
Source: www.trinidadexpress.com
By Kern De Freitas
Having shot his way to the Sportsman of the Year title for 2010 at Wednesday night's Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) awards, T&T Defence Force marksman Roger Daniel has already set his sights on Olympic qualification in 2011.
Daniel, the all-round sportsman who has had his hands in everything from badminton to hockey, feels he is on target to secure early qualification.
"In terms of training I would say (I am) roughly 80-85 per cent (ready for the qualifiers), almost there," Daniel told the media after receiving the TTOC award. "We don't want to peak, we just want to go and qualify and get the work done."
He is targeting the World Games, which will mean automatic qualification for the 2012 London Olympics.
"They deemed it open, so once you get in there and qualify it's straight into the Olympics," the shooter explained.
"We also have Pan American Games, that's the qualifier for us, so we're looking to make our mark and go out and represent (T&T)."
Daniel said he was "honoured" to pick up the TTOC award for all his "hard work".
The experience, he hopes, will serve him well in the coming months.
"This year was actually like an evaluation to let you know where you're at and how much work you need to do. So I'm using it as an evaluation for myself and see where I need added growth to go and work on it."
The night's other big winner, Commonwealth Games silver medallist Cleopatra Borel-Brown, feels "blessed" to have picked up the Sportswoman of the Year prize.
"There were lots of great performances by a lot of (other) athletes this year, so I'm really humbled and happy to have won this award," Borel-Brown said.
The award was a big "boost" to the world-class shot putter.
"It was really awesome to be recognised," Borel-Brown related. "I mean when you're out there putting in the work, sometimes it feels a little lonely, sometimes you wonder if people realise that I'm out here doing this so to get a boost to go into next year, it's nice to be recognised at the end this year. "
At 31, Borel-Brown has little thought of retiring from the sport.
"Not right now. I'm having fun, I'm doing well, so I want to keep going."
Although her performance at the World Indoor Championships earlier this year was hardly inspiring, Borel-Brown more than made up for it at the Commonwealth Games in India.
"The Commonwealth Games was a highlight performance because I represented Trinidad and Tobago there. Things really started changing at the CAC Games, so that was a highlight, and then I went to London and threw 19 metres, so that was really cool."
Borel-Brown explained that she is now much more of an "independent athlete" as she trains mostly on her own in Baltimore, Maryland, with some advice from her coach. Her aim is to just keep on improving.
"I think based on this year," Borel-Brown declared, "I can really build on the things that I learnt and try to get better at doing the things that I do well, and just keep having fun for next year."