Second Laventille Games are on

The Laventille Games began yesterday and continue until June 13. These games were inaugurated last year as a “brother” to the Laventille Steelband Festival and features competition in three disciplines, football, netball and road running. Laventille has produced many national stand-outs in the sport of netball and the games are an opportunity to showcase this pool of talent which has produce national notables Enid Brown in netball and Russell Latapy one of Trinidad and Tobago’s most successful footballers. To this end the formula will again be used in 2004 in an effort to revive the appeal of the sporting disciplines in the community and as a tool for uniting its members for the greater good of the area, a goal which may be recognised sooner than anticipated.

The Laventille games have in the space of one year moved from a two day event to this year’s proposed  5-6 week celebration of everything Laventille, aptly themed “Proud to be...Laventille,” after the football and netball competitions have come to an end the games will culminate in a 5K Road Race. A new feature of the games the road race begins at Piccadilly Greens, continues South on to St Joseph Road, east through P/Saince Road, South down Picton Road, North on to Morvant Old Road, East and right down Lady Young Road, West into Eastern Main Road and finishes at the Laventille Community Complex, Angostura Street, Eastern Main Road, Laventille. The road race on June 6 will feature four categories; 11-16, 17-39, 40-55 and 56 and over.

Netballers will compete in two divisions; Primary Schools and an Open Division, while the footballers competition will feature teams doing battle in the Under-16, Open and Over-40 Divisions for top honours. There will be a $2,000 prize, winners medal and trophy for the winner of the road race, $1,000 and the silver medal for the second placed finisher and $500 for the third placed finisher, the prize package for both the netball and football competitions is $3,000 each. Vice-chairman of the Laventille Steelband Festival Julien Cudjoe, noted the contributions of National Lotteries Control Board, TTIL, Carib, TIDCO, Petrotrin, Ministry of Community Development and Culture, Pan Trinbago, National Gas Company and National Flour Mills to the festival and the games.

He was also full of praise for the Ministry of Sport and Angostura who saw the games off the ground and have been involved with the steelband festival which begins on July 23 and hopes to exceed the attendance of 10,000 patrons recorded last year. The festival will end with a steelband street parade on August 8 which begins at Mc Allister Street and travels along the Eastern Main Road to Leon Street Laventille and features the participation of 37 bands, a potent blend of conventional and single pan ensembles. During its course there will be pan yard concerts from July 24 to August 6, exclusive to Laventille’s domestic steelbands, a steelpan camp which caters to youth between the ages of 9 and 17 selected from schools in the area, and an awards ceremony. Overall the festival and games will bring a welcome experience to the community as it continue on its mission to make all its inhabitants “Proud to be...Laventille.”