Govt bail out junior athletes bound for Italy

Trinidad and Tobago’s national junior athletes selected to represent their country at next week’s IAAF World Junior Championships will leave mid-week after all for Italy, after facing financial problems for their trip. The problem of funds was reported to be threatening their participation at the July 13-18 meet in Grosseto, but the Trinidad and Tobago athletics chief Ken Doldron told CMC Sport yesterday afternoon that the issue has been resolved, with the help of the government.

The 12 athletes selected to represent the twin-island republic at the global Under-20 meet were scheduled to leave for Italy yesterday but they were held up after team manager/coach Dr Ian Hypolite declared that they had “no money not a cent”. Because of acclimatising issues Hypolite had stated that the latest the team should leave for Italy is tomorrow and that appears to be on the cards now.  “They (athletes) have been given every assurances to go ahead, and the government will take up the tab, so our team should be travelling out of Trinidad and Tobago tomorrow afternoon,” Dol-dron said.

TT Squad:  Kelly-Ann Baptiste, Wanda Hutson, Abigail David, Rhonda Watkins, Annie Alexander, Monique Cabral, Jurlene Francis, Marcus Duncan, Jamil James, Renny Quow, Simeon Bovell, Stann Waithe Technical staff: Dr Ian Hypolite (manager/coach), Joyce Thomas (chaperone/coach).