KFC boost for junior cycling

LEGENDARY Trinidad and Tobago cyclists “Bones” Hackett, Leslie King and Roger Gibbon have been enlisted in an ambitious plan to nurture a new generation of junior riders.

Announcing the new thrust yesterday was Michael Phillips who said the effort will target the nation’s schools and has already received encouraging support from several major businesses. The occasion was the official launch of KFC’s $50,000 sponsorship of the Kids BMX events at the upcoming Beacon 2003 West Indies versus The World series. In attendance was Wendy Alleyne, Brands Manager of Prestige Holdings and Andrew Furlonge reprsenting Bike Inn, who have donated 16 scooters and 10 mountain bikes for the KFC competition.

The function took place at the offices of Prestige Holdings, Sackville Street, Port-of-Spain and was organised by Neil Guiseppi of Communications Specialists Limited. Phillips, a multi-talented individual who is a former national track champion lamented the dearth of junior cycling talent following the elevation into the senior ranks of the recent crop of promising stars. He however expressed confidence that the development programme utilising the former cycling great and the new infusion of valuable sponsorship/investment would arrest the grim situation and breed scores of wheelsmen and women who can take their place on the regional and international stage. “We will be starting off small and slow just to show the great possibilities that exist. The challenge is now for us after the infrastructure has been set up to encourage the young people to get involved in healthy sports activities,” said Phillips.

It is a vacuum that has been readily filled in the last three years, since the inception of the Beacon West Indies versus The World series by Prestige Holdings, parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut and TGI Friday’s. “KFC’s major marketing focus has always been on the country’s youth and it is because of this our company has been able to continue to operate successfully,” said Alleyne yesterday. She pointed to the sponsorship deals for the KFC/Alescon Comet Youth Development Programme; the national Under-13 cricket team; the KFC/Pepsi Primary Schools Football League and a game fishing tournament for children, staged for the past three years. Alleyne said Prestige Holdings’ involvement reaches beyond sports and highlighted their involvement with the Servol Beetham Life Centre; FEEL, the Foundation for the Life Enhancement and Enrichment of Life; and with KIND, Kids in Need of Direction.

“We at KFC feel we owe it to the nation’s children to provide them with opportunities like this to turn them away from the many distractions, many of them negative, with which they are faced today,” said Alleyne. Furlonge, on behalf of Bike Inn, complimented Phillips for the efficient running of the cycling series and pledged his continued support for the venture. “Never in my dreams did I expect the series to be so successfully organised three years running,” said Furlonge yesterday. He has shops in St James, Tunapuna, Chaguanas and San Fernando. The Beacon Insurance West Indies versus The World series pedals off on April 9 with a night event around the Queen’s Park Savannah in Port-of-Spain. The riders shift to Skinner Park, San Fernando on April 11, 12 and 13 where the Kids BMX races will be staged for the first time.

The competition then moves to Tobago on April 23 and returns for the final weekend of April 25 to 27 at the concrete-banked Arima Velodrome. From now until the end of the series, any child buying a KFC Kids Pack will be eligible to win a bike or scooter just by filling out the entry form on the pack and depositing it at specially marked boxes at the cycling venues.