Hampton Games plead for business, Govt help

And Hampton Games officials are still awaiting a response from government for assistance to make the annual competition a success.

Games Director Rawle Raphael told Newsday yesterday they are in search of $1.5 million to host the games which are scheduled for May 26 and 27 at the Dwight Yorke Stadium in Bacolet.

The venue for the games has been shifted because of the relaying of the new Mondo track at the Hasely Crawford Stadium at Mucurapo.

This is to facilitate the upcoming Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Junior Championships which is scheduled for July.

And yesterday Raphael, the Hampton Games boss, said he was still attempting to get a meeting with Sport and Youth Affairs Minister Roger Boynes to plead for financial assistance.

“I have put through about 40 calls to the minister and I have not gotten any response concerning a meeting for assisting the games,” Raphael said. He noted that it was Boynes who promised to help the struggling organisation with the games this year.

According to Raphael, the promise was made last year.

He said should they receive the asking $1.5 million to stage the games, his association will consider subsidising the fees for the athletes for the trip to the sister isle which includes airfare, accommodation and meals.

Raphael, a former government minister in the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) administration is expecting about 600 athletes and officials to make the trip to Tobago at a cost of $500 each.

Each athlete will be scheduled to travel by boat and the cost will also cover accommodation and meals for their short stay in Tobago.

Raphael is also expecting about 200 athletes from throughout the Caribbean including Jamaica, Barbados, and Guyana.

He said because of problems being experienced in getting sponsorship for the games, his association has decided to make the affair a Trinidad versus Tobago match-up.

With this move, Raphael is hoping to conjure up financial assistance from the Tobago House of Assembly.

Among the athletes expected for the games are Jamaica’s Kimberly Barrette who will be coming up against Trinidad and Tobago’s Cleopatra Borel-Brown, bronze medallist at the Commonwealth Games in the shot put.

Barrette is the Jamaican champion in the event.

Sherry Ann Brooks, also of Jamaica, is the Commonwealth Games 100 metres champion and will match strides with Trinidad and Tobago’s Fana Ashby, Ayana Hutchinson and Kelly Ann Baptiste in another top-class showdown.

Also expecting to compete here for the first time is Natasha Hasten, a United States athlete who has Trinidadian parentage.

Hasten will contest the 200 metres and 400 metres events. The men’s events holding the spotlight will be the 100 and 200 metres and among the names listed are Ainsley Armstrong and Jacey Harper who are both based in the United States.