$20M price tag for... Modern sports complex at UWI.
By: Walter Alibey - T&T Newsday.
A spanking new state-of-the-art facility incorporating various sports including track and field, cricket, rugby, football and hockey is currently under construction at the University of The West Indies Campus in St Augustine and officials are targetting September as the completion date. Dr Iva Gloudon, Director of Sport and Physical Education at the Campus stated further that a well, expected to produce about 30,000 gallons of water per minute, is being dug to provide water to the different sporting disciplines during the course of the year.
Dr Gloudon said also the facility is expected to cost the University approximately $20 million, but she feels such an institution is necessary to fulfil the University’s goal of producing well-rounded individuals to face the challenges of the world. An ex-hockey standout and captain, Dr Gloudon expressed the view that the idea of the facilities coming to the campus has been a long-time dream of hers for the past 14 years. Since her completion of tertiary level education in the United States, Dr Gloudon has been at the UWI campus striving for sport development. Not surprisingly the first-class UWI-Spec facility which houses a number of different sports disciplines including basketball, netball, badminton, table tennis, volleyball and squash was her brainchild.
She told Newsday completion of the cricket field which is called the Sir Frank Worrell Cricket Ground is part of the first phase of the project along with the track and field facility situated to the South of the campus. She noted the cricket ground is up to International Cricket Council (ICC) standard with the grass being farmed at Wallerfield and put down by Contractors Terra Forma. Dr Gloudon also said the contractors are expected to lay the grass for a number of facilities for the Cricket World Cup 2007 venues, including the stadium in Guyana and another in St Lucia. Officials are also completing the construction of an outdoor nets for batsmen and bowlers just to the east of the facility.
Gloudon said she expects the Sir Frank Worrell Ground to be the venue for practice sessions for two top teams in the upcoming Cricket World Cup 2007, in the Caribbean. Trinidad and Tobago will host India as the seeded team in the group which is the “Brown Package,” which will be played at the Queen’s Park Oval. The other teams are Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and a team from a non-test playing nation. The fourth team is currently in a play-off for the final spot in the group here in the sister-isle, Tobago.
Dr Gloudon said the track and field facility will be completed in time for the staging of the second annual UWI Half Marathon which begins in front of the campus. The inaugural marathon which was won by Kenyan John Muriuki last year, will again proceed east along the traffic-free Priority Bus Route to D’Abadie and back. Dr Gloudon said a pavilion which will include changing rooms as well as a seating capacity of 1,500 to 2,000 supporters is also in the process of construction. It will be built to the west of the cricket field. She said construction of a Rugby field to meet international standards is also on the way, and happily pointed to the completed changing facilities which will cater for students during outdoor activities.
