Trinidad and Tobago’s Men’s Olympic team will kick off their qualifying campaign for the 2016 Olympics with a Group Four Caribbean Football Union Qualifying match against Suriname in Puerto Rico on June 24th.
The fixtures, released by the CFU shows T&T in Group F along with hosts Puerto Rico, Suriname and the winner of the Dominica versus St Vincent/Grenadines tie.
According to a Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) release yesterday, only the winners of the group will advance to the CFU Final Round in August from which the top two teams will move on to the CONCACAF Final round in the United States in October.
T&T’s Olympic team began preparations at the Hasely Crawford Stadium yesterday morning under head coach Zoran Vranes.
The former T&T Senior team and Under 20 head coach believes T&T can move into the CONCACAF phase but wants his players to know the qualification campaign will be no easy task.
“Well you can see it’s not going to be an easy ride at all. Only one team will come out of our group and we are playing away from home. Okay, we know all of these teams from the past but football is always played one the day,” he told TTFA Media.
“But our players have the experience and the capability to beat these teams. They will have to focus from the start and take that through to the entire campaign. Qualifying for the Olympic games is a great achievement and every country wants to be there. This is like a World Cup because the football tournament at the Olympics has a lot of significance as well,” Vranes added.
The CFU also released the fixtures for the Women’s Olympic qualifiers. Trinidad and Tobago are in Group Two from August 21-25. T&T will open the group against Cayman Islands on August 21st. They will also face St Lucia on August 23 and Antigua/Barbuda on August 25.
The winners of the four preliminary groups will advance to the CFU Finals in October. The top three teams will then enter the final CONCACAF round (dates and country to be determined) which will involve a final eight teams from which the top two will advance to the Olympics.
Further details on the T&T Women’s Olympic team will be revealed in due course.
Women’s schedule
August 21 1 St Lucia Antigua & Barbuda
August 21 2 Trinidad & Tobago Cayman Islands
August 23 3 Antigua & Barbuda Cayman Islands
August 23 4 Trinidad & Tobago St Lucia
August 25 5 Cayman Islands St Lucia
August 25 6 Trinidad & Tobago Antigua & Barbuda
Men’s schedule
June 24 1 Suriname Trinidad & Tobago
June 24 2 Puerto Rico Dominica / St Vincent & Grenadines
June 26 3 Trinidad & Tobago Dominica / St Vincent & Grenadines
June 26 4 Puerto Rico Suriname
June 28 5 Dominica / St Vincent & Grenadines Suriname
June 28 6 Puerto Rico Trinidad & Tobago
Baptiste in 23 T&T for World Relays
Off a near two-year hiatus, Kelly-Ann Baptiste is finally set to represent T&T once again with her inclusion into a near full-strength 23-athlete national team for the second edition of the IAAF/BTC World Relays, which runs from May 2-3, again in Nassau, Bahamas.
Baptiste is set to run in T&T colours for the first time since her ban by the IAAF for the use of banned substances, which took effect in 2013 and was lifted in January.
The 28 year-old Tobago-born national 55m (indoor), 100m and 200m record holder is expected to further strengthen an already dynamic 4x100m line-up, which also includes Kai Selvon, Michelle-Lee Ahye, Reyare Thomas and Kamaria Durant, the same quartet that captured bronze in the women’s 4x100m in 42.66 seconds at the inaugural edition of the World Relays last year.
The women’s 4x100m team, is further boosted with depth with the inclusion of Lisa Wickham. Although it is unlikely, given the tight two-day schedule, the women’s team can still form a 4x200m team from the six-athlete pool.
Unlike last year, the women runners are tentatively scheduled to compete in only one other race, the 4x400m and will not provide a 4x800m team. National women’s 400m record holder Janeil Bellille and hurdles specialist Josanne Lucas will join Ramona Modeste, Alena Brooks and Magnolia Howell to complete the women’s 4x400m team, which will aim for an improved showing from last year’s disappointing 12th place.
Meanwhile, the T&T men will feature in three events compared to the two races last year.
The pool of athletes for the 4x100m and 4x200m relays includes the same combination of Marc Burns, Keston Bledman, Rondell Sorrillo and Richard Thompson, who captured the 4x100m silver at last year’s event in 38.04 seconds, behind the Jamaican star-studded line-up of Nesta Carter, Nickel Ashmeade, Julian Forte and Yohan Blake, who clocked 37.77. The same four T&T 4x100m runners have been particularly active and in good form heading into the competition.
The T&T 4x100m/4x200m pool also includes first time entrants, Marcus Duncan, Emmanuel Callender and Kyle Greaux. Greaux is also listed for the T&T 4x400m pool, along with Jacob St Clair.
As with the 4x100m team, the 4x400m team involves all the starting runners who broke the national record at the World Relays last year. Lalonde Gordon, Renny Quow, Machel Cedenio and Jarrin Solomon captured bronze for T&T in that race in two minutes, 58.34 seconds, behind USA (2:57.25) and Bahamas (2:57.59). As expected, T&T will be without 2014 Bowerman Award winner and indoor 400m national record holder, Deon Lendore, given his college and NCAA commitments. However, the national team will likely benefit from Lendore’s legs at the World Championships in August.
The travelling staff includes Dexter Voisin (manager), Dr Ian Hypolite, Charles Joseph (coaches) Dr Anyl Gopeesingh, Zephyrinus Nicholas and Verne Alleyne (medical staff).
At the inaugural World Relays, T&T placed fourth overall out of 43 participating nations in the medal count, and sixth in the points standings with 19 points, behind USA (60), Jamaica (41), Kenya (35), Great Britain (24) and Australia (21).
Both the men and women’s 4x100m teams, as well as the men’s 4x400m relay teams qualified for August’s IAAF World Championships after their performances at last year’s World Relays.
This year’s event will serve as a qualifying stage for the 2016 Summer Olympics in the 4x100 and 4×400 metres relays with the top eight placed teams in both sealing automatic qualification.
Lewis sends athletic proposal to Sports Ministry
TRINIDAD AND Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) president Brian Lewis issued an official request to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and representatives of the Ministry of Housing and Ministry of Sport, in respect of support for expedited housing for athletes who have performed national service within a defined criteria.
Over the past four weeks, the TTOC boss has been openly voicing his thoughts towards the establishment of a transparent Elite Athlete Housing Assistance Programme.
Lewis’ most recent developments in this regard has seen the delivery of an official proposal to the aforementioned Ministries requesting their immediate attention and urgency towards this unique idea. Primarily, such an initiative will assist in allowing the athlete a successful transition out of sport and back into the real world.
The purpose of the policy proposal is to implement a strategy that rewards the national athletes for their long and meritorious national duty and service at Olympics, Para-Olympics and World Level Championships (Continental and Regional).
The idea of housing assistance for national athletes is based on the reality that athletes, who dedicate years of their youthful life to representing the twin-island republic at Olympic and World level sport, make tremendous sacrifices in respect of their careers, families, and income.
According to Lewis, “the athletes’ choice to dedicate themselves to national duty and service through sport ostensibly places athletes at a significant social and economic disadvantage. The dream of qualifying and becoming an Olympic and World champion commands dedication, sacrifice and money.
Currently the burden is a de- motivating one for athletes.
“Many athletes have served the country with distinction for five or more years and it is proposed they receive formidable consideration for expedited housing assistance. Some athletes struggle to adjust to real life when their sporting career ends.”
The former Harvard Rugby Club player also aligned his proposal with the TTOC’s “10 Olympic Gold medals by 2024” vision - Athlete Welfare and Preparation Fund. Lewis is also aware of the various and strict criteria that must be met to ensure such a programme is indeed a success, both for the athlete and country.
He believes that athletes will be required to meet the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) mortgage criteria and will have to honour their mortgage obligations.
The TTOC head added, “the programme will remove one less burden of providing a home for their family and ensure a sense of security when their careers have ended. The HDC we are advised, currently have a programme that guarantees expedited housing distribution to the members of our protective services. The TTOC proposes a similar policy with expedited housing distribution to athletes who meet an agreed criterion.”
In the interest of the criteria remaining transparent, fair and accountable, the TTOC, in conjunction with the National Sporting Organisations (NSO) will clarify, confirm and recommend the athletes that deserve merit for their services for Trinidad and Tobago.
Lewis: Exploit broadcast rights for athletes’ benefit
Monday’s announcement by CANOC Broadcasting Inc (CBI) that Cable and Wireless Communications has signed as the official broadcast sponsor and telecommunications partner in the Caribbean for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio Brazil, is being described as a game changer for the Olympic movement in the region.
That’s the view of Brian Lewis, president of the T&T Olympic Committee (TTOC) following a media conference held at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad on Dock Road in Port-of-Spain, to announce the deal. CBI, a subsidiary of the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees (CANOC), secured exclusive Olympic content rights to all platforms in 20 English speaking countries, as well as non-exclusive right in 10 non-English speaking countries throughout the region.
Under the terms of a deal struck between Cable and Wireless Communications and CBI, millions of people across the Caribbean would no longer view the celebrated Games through the eyes of European or North American broadcasters.
CANOC contracted the services of global sports broadcaster ESPN to generate world class content for Caribbean viewers and the diaspora, too.
The TTOC head, said he was therefore encouraged to witness this partnership, even as the CBI approached the corporate sector at every level to enter into meaningful partnerships on behalf of national Olympic Committees to support the Caribbean’s participation at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
“At the TTOC, we are in the gold medal winning business. Our executive, stakeholder and staff, live and breathe athlete welfare and preparation in their quest for excellence every single day. This may seem a straight forward strategy, but for the athletes in T&T and the Caribbean, each day brings with it challenges along their path to success, perhaps not dissimilar to those in the corporate sector and the commercial marketplace. These challenges test us all in the Olympic movement. It motivates us and takes us well beyond our imaginable capacity,” Lewis said.
“What the TTOC is striving for is to cultivate a system of excellence that clarifies the development pathway and performance management system that holistically fosters, mentors, nurtures and develops Olympians and Olympic champions and world champions, on a sustainable and consistent way.
“Training to be an Olympic champion is a full time commitment that demands both discipline and dedication to maintain competitiveness and to win medals. Elite and high performance athletes competing in individual and team sports must dedicate themselves, time, money and energy to their athletic endeavours.”
By adopting a new mind set, said the Olympic Committee official, the TTOC targeted the big goals and big dreams of ten Olympic gold medals by the year 2024.
But to achieve this, he said, a change in culture, whether in T&T or any other Caribbean country was crucial.
Lewis said meeting this target would demand breaking down new barriers with the new and innovative approaches and declared that all within CANOC, and the individual national Olympic Committees must sensitize the Caribbean region about the reality that exists among our national athletes; and we must show that each Caribbean country and the region was fully supportive of our athletes on their journey to fulfilling the Olympic dream regardless of the colour of the flag.
“Today’s formal announcement brings CWC front and centre into the most prestigious global sporting event for the year ahead. I am encouraged by the CWC stated intention to partner with the TTOC and to support our individual achievement and objectives of 10 or more Olympic gold medals by the year 2024. The Olympic Games represents a moment of truth for sports in its many disciplines. Caribbean athletes have for many years, as individuals and as a team and as a collective, shown that we can compete and win against the best that the world can produce,” he said.
“As the executing arm of CANOC on this particular project, the CBI role in seeking to monetise and fully exploit the broadcast rights associated with these Games represent a paradigm shift. And that is a paradigm shift where CANOC and the national Olympic Committees have taken a collective decision to place our athletes at the centre of what we do.
“This is testimony that the power of the Olympic Games and sport, indeed, can unite the region as evidence by the coming together of CANOC and the formulation of CBI Limited (Inc). The steps taken here today by CWC and CBI Limited are meant to place our athletes at the heart of every commercial opportunity arising from these Games and I encourage everyone to see these commercial transactions in that light: being about our athletes, the youth of the Caribbean and the communities in which they come from.”
Vizer accuses IOC of putting pressure on International Federations to withdraw from SportAccord
SportAccord President Marius Vizer tonight accused the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of putting pressure on Federations to withdraw from his organisation following his explosive speech here yesterday.
A total of 27 Summer Olympic Federations and the International Paralympic Committee suspended its association with SportAccord earlier today.
But Vizer does not appear ready to step-back from his confrontation with the IOC President Thomas Bach after he accused him of being in charge of an organisation that is "expired, outdated, wrong, unfair and not at all transparent".
Vizer claimed his comments were justified but the IOC were just trying to protect itself.
"I tell the reality because I have been living in this family for many years," Vizer said in an interview broadcast tonight on Euronews.
"So, in reality that is the voice of the International Federations and I just expressed in one day, in a global message, their voice but yesterday the IOC, instead of analysing the content of what I said, what is true [and] what is not true, what is the next step to correct that and to offer a clear picture, they started to put pressure on some of the International Federations to react, in my opinion, not in a correct way.
"I am happy with the support of my spirit because what I say is true and nobody can stop that.
"You have to make a distinction in sport between people who live for sport and people who live from sport.
"For those who live, more or less exclusively from sport, it’s very attractive and very interesting to defend the system because the virtues of the system, let’s say of the IOC, has lots of tentacles in different directions.
"So the question is very simple, do we want to clean up the story or cover the story?"
Vizer promised he would continue to follow the road he has set out on and not buckle under intimidation.
"I was a soldier and my life was long and difficult till now, and always in my strategies I have different versions," he told Euronews.
"So be sure that I am prepared for the second and the third step, not only with speeches but also with action and strategies.
"The question is to clean-up the system and to make it fair for the benefit of sport.
"Not a system that defends itself and a specific group of leaders or cardinals of sport because we don’t need that and sport doesn’t need that.
"I don’t care if some people are afraid to say that but I say that.
"We don’t need cardinals of sport.
"We don’t need popes.
"We need fair leaders who are models and examples for us."
Nick Butler: Crash, bang, wallop as sports politics is turned on its head at SportAccord Convention
After several attempts at arriving in Sochi yesterday were halted by uncompromising weather, our plane was forced to land 200 kilometres to the west in the wonderfully named Mineralnye Vode airfield, before resuming its journey four hours later once the conditions had calmed.
An inauspicious start, but the fierceness of last night’s rain paled into insignificance in comparison with the thunderstorms which shook the Olympic Movement this morning as SportAccord President Marius Vizer launched the fiercest attack on the International Olympic Committee in generations.
In his opening speech at this morning’s General Assembly, Vizer accused IOC President Thomas Bach of trying to block projects, claimed the IOC lacked transparency and that its Agenda 2020 reform process had brought "hardly any benefit" to sport.
And that was just him warming up.
“Mr. President, stop blocking the SportAccord strategy in its mission to identify and organise Conventions and multi-sport games,” Vizer added.
He then labelled the IOC system as being “expired, outdated, wrong and unfair”.
By the time he had finished, Bach, like most in the room, appeared taken aback, but rallied well, thanking Vizer drolly for his “friendly” welcome before stoutly defending his record and claiming his adversary’s views were out of step with the International Federations.
Not quite fighting fire with fire, but managing a response that was strong, but also relatively statesmanlike.
In an environment renowned for soft words and public platitudes, with messages therein invariably subtle and unambiguous, this was stirring stuff. The judoka attempting to dispatch the fencer with an ippon before his adversary had a chance to foil the attack.
I have never seen anything like it in my short time covering this Movement, but neither had many of my far more senior colleagues either. The latter days of Primo Nebiolo’s time as head of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) was one period when relations were similarly fractious with the IOC, some said, but never have simmering tensions erupted into open warfare quite like this before.
Of course, it was an open secret that relations between IOC and SportAccord were tense, as signified simply by the fact that the IOC Executive Board chose not to meet here for the first time since the Convention began over a decade ago.
But as news of Vizer’s outburst began to filter out of the auditorium and through the rest of the Expo Centre, there was bafflement, bemusement and excitement - from journalists at least - that the long and arduous journey had been thoroughly worth it.
More than anything else, everyone seemed to have been knocked off balance. Public Relations gurus were rushing around as multiple clients batted to have their say, advisors struggled to conjure an appropriate response or to direct their charges to the right people. Even Bach’s entourage seemed slightly rattled.
“He’s speaking to a journalist, he’s speaking to a journalist,” I heard one assistant warn another, gesticulating wildly in the direction of Bach.
News gradually filtered out that the IAAF and the International Shooting Sport Federation had resigned their SportAccord membership and that a mysterious letter existed, expressing the opposition of a groups of Federations to Vizer’s words, the precise number of which seemed to be different whoever you spoke to.
As we were still digesting this, Bach suddenly appeared alongside Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, the Association of National Olympic Committees President, who, with Bach and Vizer, were the so-called triumvirate of Olympic Movement powerbrokers.
“I’ll go for Bach and you intercept Sheikh Ahmad,” barked my editor, setting off with a turn of speed usually saved for when coffee supplies are dwindling in a press centre, as throngs of other people with the same idea began a similar move.
But, because many of these were International Federation Presidents themselves, we were not short of people to speak to, and almost all were open and happy to talk. Responses ranged from “we will wait until the dust has settled” to “Mr Vizer has shown today he does not know how to do politics”.
What was clear was that the applecart had been well and truly upturned.
Former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson once said that a “week is a long time in politics”, and at times today it seemed even an hour was a long time.
Given this, it would be rash to conclude too strongly about what will happen next, but it does seem that Vizer miscalculated and has now bitten off far more than he can chew.
Surely, rather than acting so rashly, he should have told the members about his impending assault, and at least prepared some sympathetic representatives to stand up afterwards in support of his message? As it is, it is like a general launching a coup d'état but without any troops to back up his bluster.
Meetings of the Association of Summer and Winter Olympic Federations over the next two days will tell us more about the state of play. Yet, as things stand, Vizer now risks losing every Olympic member of SportAccord (except for the International Judo Federation of course, for the obvious reason that he is the President) and, if that happens, either he will have to resign or his organisation will have been irreversibly weakened.
If you are not already convinced that events have already descended out of his control, then the fact he has also declared a second battle with Sheikh Ahmad’s ANOC seems a further nail in the coffin.
Later in the Assembly, the inaugural World Beach Games was awarded to Sochi in 2019, with SportAccord now appearing as the driving force, while Vizer also expressed his excitement for the black tie “Oscars of Sport” taking place during the Convention in three days’ time.
Hold on, wasn’t ANOC’s inaugural awards ceremony in Bangkok last November hyped over and over again as the "Oscars of Sport"? And isn’t the World Beach Games the foremost project of Sheikh Ahmad’s Presidency; his defining legacy more than anything else?
The Kuwaiti Royal is therefore unlikely let go of it that easily, and will take the Oscars line as a further snub, and in a vague statement this evening it was made clear that ANOC plans to go ahead with its own Beach Games, revealing plans to “announce some exciting plans in June 2015”.
A peculiar day then, to the extent that the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, someone not averse to making some political headlines of his own this year, was almost an irrelevance, lost in a sporting dispute that was less of a Cold War and more a simmering one at times veering towards boiling over.
And to think, this was meant to be a gentle day before the Convention properly got underway.
But, while it is perhaps not to be recommended as a political tactic, you have to admire Vizer’s sheer nerve, and the most refreshing thing today has been the blunt, open and forthright nature of it all.
I wrote two weeks ago about the dominance of PR in sport, and how much of it is choreographed and bland. The aforementioned ANOC statement, crafted as it was by their consultancy arm, JTA, was the only exception to this, but everyone else was, if not completely honest, then at least prepared to express clear views, and express them strongly.
And, you know what, while it seems likely Vizer will be outmaneuvered, I sincerely hope he has some fight left in him to continue his attack over the rest of the week.
Because, more than anything else, it has all been great fun so far.