Olympians of tomorrow

At these championships our Khalifa St Fort earned the bronze medal in the 100 metres event. The USA won 21 medals — 11 gold, 6 silver and 4 bronze; Kenya won nine medals — 5 gold, 2 silver, and 2 bronze; Ethiopia won ten medals — 4 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze; Jamaica eight medals — 2 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze; Germany six medals; Cuba five medals; Poland four medals; and China three medal.

In the men’s events, US athletes won the 100 metres, 200 metres, 110 metres hurdles, the 4x100 metres relay and the 4x400 metres relay.

The 400 metres was won by an athlete from Qatar, the 400 metres hurdles by a Jamaican, while athletes from Kenya won the 800 metres, 1500 metres, and 10,000 metres.

Cuban athletes won the high jump, long jump and triple jump.

It is interesting to note that Neeraj Chopra from India won the javelin event with a world junior record of 86.38 metres and a Qatar athlete won the discus event.

In the women’s events, athletes from the US won gold medals in the 100 metres, 800 metres, 400 metres hurdles and the 4x100 metres and 4x400 metres relays. Ethiopian athletes won the 1500 metres, 3000 metres, and 5000 metres events; an athlete from Bahrain won the 200 metres event; Tiffany James from Jamaica won the 400 metres while another Jamaican, Junelle Bonfield, won the bronze in the same event.

A Chinese athlete won the triple- jump; the 100 metres hurdles was won by an athlete from Belarus and the discus event by an athlete from Montenegro. Jamaica was second in the 4x400 metres relay, while a Jamaican was second in the 100 metres hurdles and another Jamaican was second in the 400 metres hurdles.

Countries failing to win a gold medal included Australia, South Africa, Italy, Japan, Ukraine, Finland and Sweden.

This article demonstrates the good performances of female athletes from Jamaica in the 400 metres and in the hurdles events, from Belarus in the women’s sprint, China in the triple-jump, Montenegro in the discus event, and the dominance of the US in the relays for both men and women.

Ethiopia and Kenya continue to dominate in the 1500 to the 5000 metres events for women and from 1500 to 10,000 metres for men.

In other men’s events, a Kenyan athlete won the 800 metres, while the Japanese team won the silver medal in the 4x100 metres relay.

These results indicate the increasing levels of competition and the increasing number of countries which are producing an increasing number of good quality athletes.

Trinidad and Tobago has five stadiums which, in my opinion, are underutilised for sport. More fetes and concerts are held at these facilities than organised sports meetings.

There is urgent need for the establishment of a sports academy with programmes aimed at developing not only athletes of international standard but also the development of sports administrators, coaches, physiotherapists, masseurs, nutritionists, referees, umpires and other necessary support personnel.

In this country of no planning, TT is being left behind and now with the significant reduction in revenue one cannot be optimistic there will be a reversal in the near future.

We are not producing our “Olympians for tomorrow”.

I have written here about track and field events, but I am aware there is a similar need for the development of our athletes in cycling, boxing, s w imm i n g and other sporting disciplines.