Special Olympics World Games 2015: July 25 to August 2 (LA, California, USA)

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SOTT gets support from Digicel for World Games
By Sean Nero (T&T Guardian)
Published: Thursday, May 7, 2015

The Digicel Foundation yesterday donated $100,000 to Special Olympics T&T’s (SOTT) ongoing fund-raising efforts to attend and compete at this year World Games in Los Angeles this July.

Penny Gomez, chief executive officer of the Foundation, made the presentation to Ferdinand Bibby, national director of SOTT at yesterday’s media conference held at Chanka Trace, El Socorro.

The media event doubled as a launch of the Foundation’s special needs awareness campaign titled “Just like You!” The latest social initiative by the Foundation aimed to carve out a new level of respect for persons with disabilities.

But as the gathering celebrated the new awareness drive, Bibby, lamented that his team was $800,000 short of its $1.2 million budget for an 85-member contingent: 65 athletes and 20 coaches.

This country’s athletes were expected to compete in eight disciplines: Aquatics, athletics, basketball, equestrian, football, power-lighting, volleyball and bocce.

“We have always competed and represented the country well. At our last Games in Athens, Greece in 2011the team returned with 15 gold (medals), 15 silver (medals) and five bronze medals. We at Special Olympics don’t always emphasize silverware, because the motto of Special Olympics is ‘Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me live in the attempt.’ Imagine 7,000 persons from 170 countries in one space competing in 25 different disciplines. That alone is an achievement. Normally, we tend to hide away our persons with intellectual disabilities and not give them the opportunities, so that alone is an achievement.

Bibby said, “Sponsorship means taking person with intellectual disabilities off the sidelines and moving them onto the field of play. Many persons with intellectual disabilities are discriminated (against) every day, either overtly or covertly. We are asking corporate citizens to come on board and assist us in paying the travel for athletes to go to the Games to experience World Games and be part of sports. We always look forward to the opportunity to compete and competition at the highest level is every athletes dream. We would like them to have the joy of participating at the World Games.”

He lauded the commitment of Digicel and went on to explain that the telecoms company took genuine interest in all its activities and even had staff volunteer their services and impart knowledge, too.

The collaboration, he said, was more than just the giving of funds and declared the campaign spoke for itself citing that there was more to athlete involvement than just playing on the field.

Bibby underscored the need to raise awareness in society and let people understand and appreciate that athletes with intellectual disabilities were people, too, who occupied a similar space in a meaningful a way.

On learning of SOTT’s significant shortfall of funds and the slow response from the state and the private sector, Gomez called on the business sector to match Digicel Foundation’s contribution and ensure the national team continued to medal successful against the world.

She said, “One of the focuses of the Foundation is special needs. It was so important to raise awareness for persons with special needs and particularly to do it through SOTT and using the athletes as the focal point. The athletes, of course, are getting ready to go to the World Games in Los Angeles, in July. They are star athletes, so we thought it was important that we would build a campaign around them and the campaign is called Just like You!

“We wanted people to recognise that this is a space owned by everyone. It’s a space for everyone. The same way people win, people lose, they feel pain, they celebrate, the athletes and persons with special needs have the ranges of emotions and in their daily course of living, and they are experiencing the same things like all of us.”

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TT Special Olympic athletes train for World Games
Friday, May 22 2015 (T&T Newsday)

Nathan Mc Clean, front left, dribbles past his teammates at the Special Olympics Kick Start football training session at the CIC Grounds, St Clair.

With the Special Olympic World Games fast approaching the respective sporting teams representing Trinidad and Tobago are training hard, determined to put their best foot forward at the Games.

During the recent Digicel Kick Start Clinic, members of the Special Olympic National team, competing in the discipline of football, received hands on training from coaches from the Chelsea football club.

Facilitated by Max Fouracre, International Development Head Coach for Chelsea FC, the young men were given valuable pointers and a series of drills geared at further developing their skills in the game of football. The twelve players hailed from Servol Special School, Memisa Centre and Lady Hochoy School, Penal. Five young men were presented with Adidas footballs at the end of the session for their enthusiasm and skill displayed.

This marked the second in a series of events for these athletes who will participate in the Special Olympic World Games scheduled for July in Los Angeles. On May 16, members of the Volleyball team participated in a #PlayUnified event with members of the Defence Force volleyball team. The next event on the #PlayUnified calendar will be a Fun Day hosted by the Digicel Foundation and Special Olympics TT at the St James Police Barracks on June 6.

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Special Olympians off to World Games
Published: Monday, July 20, 2015 (T&T Guardian)

Minister of Sport Brent Sancho with swimmers and coaches.
Photo courtesy: The Sports Company of T&T

Some 65 of the country’s top Special Olympians, as well as, officials will leave today for the Special Olympics World Games  in Los Angeles, California.

The athletes will be hoping to maintain T&T’s proud and successful history at the Games, following their success in 2011 when the Games were held in Athens, Greece, and T&T won 39 medals including 12 gold, 16 silver and 11 bronze.

Minister of Sport Brent Sancho visited the swim team as they went through a final training session at the Diego Martin Community Swimming Pool, yesterday.

The session was led by coaches Monique and Stephen Telfer. The enthusiastic bunch of five boys and four girls worked on their turns and practised their strokes, breathing patterns and relay exchanges.

Sancho gave the team a pep talk and presented their athlete packages of a towel, swim cap and team jackets.

Longstanding disability swim coach Stephen Telfer was pleased at the team’s preparation and is confident of many medals from this new group of athletes who have been in training for over a year.

“I am constantly amazed at the effort the athletes give at each training session. I’ve been coaching for years and my athletes never let me down. I expect we’ll be returning home with a lot of precious metal,” Telfer said.

The entire Special Olympics contingent comprises athletes in eight disciplines—aquatics, athletics, basketball, bocce, equestrian, football, powerlifting and volleyball.

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Special athletes ready for Summer Games
Published on Jul 23, 2015, 12:01 am AST (T&T Express)

GOING FOR GOLD: The Special Oylmpics Trinidad and Tobago delegation on their way to LA for the Special Olympics World Games from July 25 to August 2. --Photo: courtesy Digicel Foundation

The Special Olympics Trinidad and Tobago delegation departed for Los Angeles California, USA, earlier this week. Sixty-four athletes and 22 officials left in two groups to participate in the Special Olympics World Summer Games.

The T&T team will be competing in eight disciplines including aquatics, athletics, basketball, bocce, equestrian, football, power-lifting and volleyball for which they have been involved in vigorous training sessions for the past two years.

The Digicel Foundation, long-standing partner of the team, donated over $100,000 to the games and hosted a number of events to raise awareness and build support for persons with special needs. The games begin Saturday with the opening ceremony and continue until August 2.

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TT bags eight more Special Olympics medals
Thursday, July 30 2015 (T&T Newsday)

JOANNA PIANGO claimed a gold medal in the equestrian yesterday as Trinidad and Tobago
collected six more medals (one gold, one silver and three bronze) at the 2015 Special
Olympics World Games in Los Angeles, California, United States.

Up to press time last evening, the Trinidad and Tobago contingent had a haul of 32 medals - 16 gold, six silver and ten bronze.

Piango triumphed in the EQ Equestrian English Equitation Division Two with a score of 53.00.

Nicholas McKnight was the most successful TT performer on the day, as he collected four medals — one silver and three bronze medals in powerlifting.

He placed second in the PL Male Bench Press Division M6 with a best effort of 67.50 kilogrammes. And he finished third in three categories — PL Male Squat Lift Division M6 (67.50 kg), PL Male Combination All Lifts Division M6 (240.0 kg) and PL Male Dead Lift Division M6 (105.0 kg).

Trinidad and Tobago a team of 65 athletes and officials at the Games, and they are seeking to better their achievement at the last Games, which took place in 2011 at Athens, Greece.

Four years ago, the TT participants returned home with a tally of 39 medals - 12 gold, 16 silver and 11 bronze.

The entire Special Olympics contingent comprised of athletes in eight disciplines — aquatics, athletics, basketball, bocce, equestrian, football, powerlifting and volleyball.

The national swim team are yet to feature at the Games, but veteran disability swim coach Stephen Telfer is confident that his charges will reap rewards, in terms of medals.

“I am constantly amazed at the effort the athletes give at each training session,” he said, before the team left Trinidad. I’ve been coaching for years and my athletes never let me down. I expect we’ll be returning home with a lot of precious metal!”

In related news, Digicel showed its appreciation to hundreds of families, volunteers and Local Organising Committees from 23 countries in a celebration event in Los Angeles, California, at the Westin Bonavenure Hotel on Friday last.

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T&T get swimming gold at Special Olympics
Published on Jul 29, 2015, 9:54 pm AST (T&T Express)

Great effort: Kenya’s Joseph Njenga Njunie makes a diving save during a 2015 Special Olympics World Games beach volleyball match at Alamitos Beach, in Long Beach, California, USA, on Monday.
 —Photo: AP

The Trinidad and Tobago Special Olympics team struck gold on day one of competition in aquatics at the Uytengsu Aquatics Centre in the University of Southern California, as part of the 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Los Angeles, California on Sunday.

Swimmers Nikolai Lalla, Jariah Walker and Chavez Lamy all won gold medals in their categories while Shania Surujbally and Jaleel Pierre won ribbons.

Nikolai Lalla finished his 50 metre breaststroke in 38.43 seconds, while Jariah Walker and Chavez Lamy finished their 25m backstroke in 23.23 seconds and 16.85 seconds respectively.

Meanwhile, Shania Surujbally was fourth in her 50m backstroke in 1:00.93. Jariah Walker was sixth in his 25m back doing 25.02 which he had bettered earlier in the day when he did a 22.09.

[Deeks]

Congrats to our Special Ones for a great showing. God Bless!!!

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Five medals for TT Special Olympics swimmers
Friday, July 31 2015 (T&T Newsday)

Members of the Trinidad and Tobago aquatics team pose with coach Stephen Telfer
(back row, second from right) and his wife/assistant Monique Telfer (right).
At left is assistant coach for Open Water Swimming Ancil Greene.
 
The Special Olympics swim team are a proud bunch after splashing to five medals — three gold, two bronze — at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center, Los Angeles, USA, recently.

Bringing home the gold for this country are Nikoli Lalla (50m breaststroke), Chavez Lamy (25m backstroke) and Jariah Walker (25 m backstroke). Clinching bronze in the 50m freestyle was Shania Surujbally, bouncing back in style from a fourth place finish in another race.

And yesterday, Melissa Nanan, competing in the 25m backstroke, stopped the clock at 30.01 seconds to finish in third place behind Croatia’s Tanja Zabic (29.05) and Uruguay’s Paula Bonifacio (29.96).

Earlier, Lalla and and Lamy had sounded a warning to their rivals with victories in the preliminary rounds while Walker was second but performed to his peak when it counted in the final.

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Three more gold for TT Special Olympics team
Saturday, August 1 2015 (T&T Newsday)

MEDALS RAINED heavy on Thursday in the Trinidad and Tobago Special Olympic camp at the 2015 World Games in Los Angeles, California.

TT’s Special Olympic athletes continued to dominate in the fields of athletics, aquatics, bocce and equestrian, adding 12 more medals to their tally - three gold, two silver and seven bronze.

In athletics, TT got gold from Tmeyon Logie in the 25-metre run, while Salina Leonard (25m run), La Toya Charles (100m run) and Donelle Walkes (100m) each picked up bronze medals.

Alicia Khan captured gold in the bocce singles, while Renee Massiah got a bronze while, in equestrian, in the dressage category, Joanna Piango earned a gold, Jamol Forde had a silver and Keonne Forde took a bronze.

And, in aquatics, Stefan Singh pocketed a silver in the 1,500m open water swim, Nikolai Lalla had a bronze in the 50m freestyle and Melissa Nanan also got bronze in the 25m backstroke.

Thus far TT has bagged 44 medals at this year’s Special Olympic Games - 19 gold, eight silver and 17 bronze.

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Mixed fortunes for Special Olympians
Published on Aug 3, 2015, 12:01 am AST (T&T Express)

GOLDEN GIRL: Joanna Piango displays her gold in English Equestrian at the Special Olympic World Games in Los Angeles, California, USA. — Photo courtesy Digicel Foundation

It was a day of mixed results last Thursday for the Trinidad and Tobago Special Olympics Team, currently in Los Angeles, California, USA, for the 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games.

In Equestrian English Equitation Competition, athlete Joanne Piango scored 53 points to bring home a gold medal while Aaron Ben Ali won a bronze medal with 48 points.

In athletics, T&T's athletes competed in the finals of the men's 200m and 400m. In the 200m, Donald Doyle clocked 25.63 seconds to attain an 8th Place Ribbon. Yetendra Singh one minute, 8.26 seconds, and Ishmael Perpignac in 1:10.29, both won 7th Place Ribbons in their 400m races, respectively.

There were mixed emotions for Rickey Quow in his 200m race. Rickey, who is the brother of T&T international Renee Quow, came to the Games with a pair of running shoes donated by his elder brother and a promise to follow in the illustrious footsteps of his sibling.

For a brief moment it appeared that he had fulfilled that dream when he ran 25.22 to just be beaten across the finish line by Gharawy Faris from Saudi Arabia in 25.19.

It was subsequently learnt though, that Rickey had been disqualified for a “Lane Infringement” or crossing lanes. Rickey will have to await the 100m and 4 x 100m relay.

Female Bocce player Beverly Adams finished with a 6th Place Ribbon while, Renee Massiah, Alicia Khan, will be in action in Singles Competition on Thursday.

Thursday's Events

Basketball: T&T v Japan

Volleyball: T&T will face Russia then Croatia

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Special Olympics World Games
T&T athletes capture 48 medals
By Nicholas Clarke (T&T Guardian)
Published: Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Special olympians arrive for the closing ceremonies of the Special Olympics World Games, Sunday, in Los Angeles.

T&T’s 64-member delegation finished with a total of 48 medals (15 gold, nine silver and 24 bronze) as the Special Olympics World Summer Games came to a close in Los Angeles, California , USA on Sunday.

Additionally, the team returned home with 18 fourth place, three fifth place, seven sixth place, two seventh place and one eighth place ribbons in Aquatics, Athletics, Basketball, Bocce, Equestrian, Football, Powerlifting and Volleyball.  At the 2011 Games, they captured 15 gold, 15 silver and eight bronze medals.

On T&T’s final day of competition on Saturday, its athletes added a total of 10 medals, including one gold, two silver and seven bronze, along with four fourth place and two sixth place ribbons.

Aquatics 4x25m Freestyle Relay Team “A”, consisting of Nikolai Lalla, Chavez Lamy, Jaleel Pierre and Shania Surujbally, gave high expectations when they clocked 1:02.44 seconds, the fastest overall time in the preliminaries. However, they were disqualified when one of the swimmers was judged to have entered the pool before time.

The 4x25m Relay Team “B” with Melissa Nanan, Theresa Duncan, Jariah Walker and Vanessa Maharaj was sixth in its division. The aquatics team finished with three gold, one silver, three bronze, four fourth place, one fifth place, one sixth place and one disqualification.

SOT&T Athletics 4x100m relay team of Donald Doyle, Latoya Charles, Devon Wilson and Rickie Quow finished in sixth place in a time of 54.37. Ishmael Perpignac was unable to finish his 800m race due to an injury. Athletics brought home four gold, one silver, four bronze, four fourth place, one fifth place, two sixth place, two seventh place, one eighth place and three disqualifications.

SOT&T Bocce’s Alicia Khan completed the triple when she teamed with Renee Massiah to capture her third Gold Medal in the Doubles Competition. Kerry James and Ronan Dominique also won a bronze medal, while the pair of Colin Duncan and Beverly Adams won a fourth place ribbon. Bocce finished with three gold, two silver, two bronze, two fourth place and one sixth place ribbon.

Basketball captured the bronze medal when they defeated Japan. In the Equestrian Team Relay Competition, Jomal Forde partnered Keonne Jones to earn a bronze medal. The team finished with four gold, one silver, four bronze, two fourth place, one fifth place and one sixth place. Joanne Piango finished with triple gold.

SOT&T Football captured the gold medal in its division. The team played undefeated in all competition with earlier results of 2-2 against Faro Islands on Saturday, 4-0 over Costa Rica and 1-1 against Switzerland on Sunday, 4-1 over St. Vincent and the Grenadines, 2-1 over Barbados and 4-2 against Hong Kong. Brandon George was the leading scorer for SOT&T with five goals but was supported by captain Devan Mahadeo and Gari Ryan with four goals each, Clint Samuel with three, Sean Gibson with two and Nathan Mc Lean and Aleem Hassan with one goal each.

In Powerlifting, Damian Marquis captured a silver medal in the Bench Press with 92.5 kg, a bronze with 125kg in the Squat, and fourth place in the Dead Lift with 157.5 kg. That was good enough to win a silver medal in the Combination Lifts. Malachi Sylvester won four bronze medals, lifting 72.5kg in Bench Press, 110 kg in the Squat, 145kg in the deadlift for a total of 327.5kg in the Combination Lifts.

SOTT Volleyball defeated Jamaica but lost to India in a grueling three-setter later in the day to capture a fourth place ribbon. The Games came to an end on Sunday with a closing ceremony at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The SOTT Delegation returned in two groups yesterday. The first group, with Aquatics, Athletics, Basketball and Powerlifting athletes, is expected to arrive in Piarco at 1.45 pm while the second group, with Bocce, Equestrian, Football and Volleyball athletes, will arrive at 9 pm later that day.

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Elated athletes return from Special Olympics
By JOEL BAILEY Tuesday, August 4 2015 (T&T Newsday)

National athletes pose at the Piarco International Airport after competing at the Special Olympics.
Author: AZLAN MOHAMMED

AN EXHAUSTED but elated group of Trinidad and Tobago athletes returned home from the 14th Special Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California, United States, yesterday, to a cheering group of supporters, including relatives as well as members of the Special Olympics Trinidad and Tobago (SOTT).

In total, Trinidad and Tobago amassed 48 medals — 15 gold, nine silver and 24 bronze, at the 2015 edition.

Yesterday afternoon, at the Piarco International Airport, the first of two groups arrived — participants in aquatics, basketball, powerlifting and track and field. One of the athletes who returned home was 18- year-old powerlifter Nicholas McKnight, a resident of San Juan.

McKnight collected four medals at the Games — a silver (male bench press) and three bronze (male dead lift, male combination and male squat lift).

“I gave it my all,” said McKnight yesterday. “I just wanted to come back with something and make my mother proud. And I just went out there and made myself proud, just to do something for mummy.” Admitting it was his first Special Olympic Games, McKnight noted, “I just said to myself I’ll hold my head up, pray to God and go out there and do my best”.

However, he was hard on himself when asked about his overall display.

“The performance was a little low but I made myself do the best that I could,” he said.

Candilla Berment-Harper, head of delegation for the team and the chairperson of the Special Olympics Trinidad and Tobago (SOTT), was also pleased with the returns from the TT squad.

“The experience was very good,” she commented. “It was more for the athletes and not for me. This (was) my tenth year taking a team to the World Games. They performed extremely well.” She emphasised,“the experience for them is really something that they will cherish. It helps them to socialise a lot more, it helps them to deal with their peers. They make friends (and) they enjoy themselves.” Asked what memories stood out for her at the Games, Berment-Harper replied, “many moments I would say. You can’t pinpoint one particular (moment). Just the fact that the athletes performed so well, that is our moment.” The TT basketball team finished third at the Games, defeating Japan in the third-place playoff.

Coach Ronald De Silva pointed out, “we came out very successful, (with) the bronze. We could have done better but we had some shooting problems in one of the games, which we lost.

That put us in the bronze medal (match).” But he was satisfied with the efforts shown by his players.

“What I put them through in the last six months, they really delivered and we came out with a medal in the end,” said De Silva. “And they enjoyed it.

“We had a great time. Many of these kids, it’s the first time they have been on a plane, in a different country.” De Silva made a plea for some of his players to be used in either the national men’s league teams or in school teams.

“Many of these athletes we have, they are not included in the ‘normal’ games that we have,” he stated. “I think there are couple of guys on my team that could be put on a second division or a third division, or a school team. Many of them do not get that opportunity, and the ‘normal’ kids really do not understand them.”

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Special Olympics more than ‘gold or ribbons’
By JOEL BAILEY Tuesday, August 4 2015 (T&T Newsday)

Special Olympics athletes return with medals from World Games 2015

THE SIXTY-FOUR TT athletes who competed at the World Special Olympics Summer Games in Los Angeles came away with far more than medals and ribbons. That was the view of Ferdinand Bibby, National Director for the TT Special Olympics (SOTT) as he spoke exclusively with Newsday on his return with the second half of the TT contingent on Monday night.

Bibby said the LA experience met the objectives of the movement’s mission statement.

“That’s one of the aims — to express joy to the athletes,” he said, as they reunited with their loved ones in the Arrivals lounge at the Piarco International Airport. “Special Olympics always brings out joy.

So while there was competition, you would see athletes, after they compete, hug each other, give each other high-fives; and when they go back to the games village they would be talking to each other, exchanging pins. There was always the element of celebration — celebrating the achievements of the athletes, as well as their performances, whether it was gold or ribbon performance.” TT earned 48 medals, including 15 gold and nine silver. Asked what moments in competition stood out, Bibby responded, “We try to celebrate all the athletes’ achievements and to stay way from elitism. But when you look at Joanna Piango (English Equitation) as well as Alicia Khan (Bocce) who are two of the younger athletes in the group, and their ability to go out there and perform at the high level, that would be something to look forward to for the future.” Among TT’s major successes was the triumphant seven-a-side football team, which defeated Barbados 2-1 in the gold medal game.

The captain, Devant Mahadeo said his players had been confident they would go one better than their silver medal performance in 2011, adding that their greatest challenge had come earlier in the competition.

“Hong Kong,” he said, with a smile. “But we win them (4-2).

They gave us a great fight.” Away from the competition, the Games organisers managed to provide more than just an enjoyable atmosphere for almost 7,000 athletes.

“In the USA campus alone there were 5,000 athletes, and in each campus there was a games village, where the athletes were encouraged to mingle, they were encouraged to experience the various cultures,” Bibby said.

Describing the facilities at the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of Los Angeles (UCLA) as state-of-theart, he singled out the Healthy Athletes facility for special mention.

“Many of the persons with intellectual disabilities have health issues, whether it is their physical health. So part of Special Olympics is offering healthy athlete screening where they are screened for vision, they are screened for dental work, they are screened for nutrition, and given advice. “One of the features also was that each athlete was given a pair of sneakers — 7,000 athletes given a pair of New Balance sneakers on being screened for their healthy feet in the Healthy Athlete campaign. So besides competition, it was also about the athletes’ welfare.” Bibby praised the TT coaches and assistants, noting that they were all volunteers. “So they did it for the love of the athlete, for the interaction, the sense of pride when you would have trained someone and see them perform and achieve at the highest level.” On a parting note, the National Director made a plug for better training facilities for the special athletes and greater exposure to competition. “We always say at Special Olympics, access means more than a ramp or an elevator; it means access to opportunities, access to funding, access to a sporting space where the national governing bodies could offer a vision or a grouping or a category for their national events, because some of our athletes only compete once a year,” he said. “So that with regular access to competition, you would see a greater achievement in performance.” The dates and venue for the XV Summer Games (2019) will be announced at the Winter Games in Austria (2017).

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T&T Special Olympians win 48 medals
By Sandhya Santoo (T&T Express)
Published on Aug 6, 2015, 9:33 am AST

HUGS: Equestrian Team hugging each other after they were victorious at the Special Olympics World Summer Games held in Los Angeles, California, U.S. The world games was held from July 25 to August 2. With gold medal winner Joanna Piango, (first from left).


WINNERS: SOTT Aquatic team winners at the Special Olympics World Summer Games held in Los Angeles, California, U.S. The world games was held from July 25 to August 2. From L to R: Aquatics coach Stephen Telfer, Shania Surujbally, Laleel Pierre, Chavez Lamy (Head of Delegation) Candilla Berment- Harper, Aaron Ben Ali and Jariah Walker.


WINNERS: LtoR; Tmeyon Logie, Rosanna Gebodh and Jade Ramkawalsingh - Winners of the soft ball athletics category at the the Special Olympics World Summer Games held in Los Angeles, California, U.S.


FOOTBALL: SOTT football team waving in victory at the Special Olympics World Summer Games held in Los Angeles, California, U.S. The world games was held from July 25 to August 2.

TRINIDAD and Tobago Special Olympians have returned home victorious after competing in eight disciplines at the 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games.

The athletes won a total of 48 medals - 15 gold, nine silver and 24 bronze with eighteen 4th place, three 5th place, seven 6th place, two 7th place and one 8th place ribbon.

The delegation comprised 64 people with 20 coaches and three officials.

The athletes competed in aquatics, athletics, basketball, bocce, equestrian, football, power lifting and volleyball.

The world games was held in Los Angeles, California, from July 25 to August 2 with approximately 7,000 participants from 177 countries.

In 2011, the T&T team captured 15 Gold, 15 Silver and eight Bronze medals.

The aquatics team struck gold on day one of the competition. Swimmers Nikolai Lalla finished his 50 metre breaststroke in 38.43 seconds, Jariah Walker finished his 25 metre backstroke in 23.23 seconds and Chavez Lamy in 16.85 seconds. Shania Surujbally and Jaleel Pierre won ribbons. Stefan Singh won silver in the 1,500 metre Open Water Swim, which was the first time this competition was held at Special Olympics.

On Day 2 the Bocce team also claimed gold victory. Bocce is a sport resembling lawn bowling.

Athletes Renee Massiah, Alicia Khan, Colin Duncan and Kerry James teamed up to win silver medals.

The football team was successful in defeating Canada, Barbados, Costa Rica, Switzerland, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Hong Kong.

Power-lifting champion Nicholas Mc Knight won a silver (in Benach Press with 67.5 kilogrammes) and three bronze medals in Squat (65.5 kg), Dead Lift (105 Kg) and Combine Lifts (240Kg). Damian Marquis got silver in squat and combination lift, bronze in bench press and 4th in dead lift. Malachi Sylvester got a bronze in bench press, squat, dead lift and combination loft.

Joanne Piango won gold scoring 53 points in the Equestrian English Equitation competition while Aaron Ben Ali won bronze with 48 points.

In athletics Donelle Walkes ran the 200m in 34.72 seconds to capture a Gold Medal. Yetendra Sing and Ishmael Perpignac won 7th place ribbons in their 400 metre races. Donal Doyle took 8th place ribbons in the 200 metre race. In the “Softball Throw”, which is an adaptation of the “Shot-put”, Salina Lennard won Gold with a throw of 9.97m Rosanna Gebodh also won Gold with a throw of 6.40m, while Tmeyon Logie capturing a Silver Medal with a throw of 14.46m and Jade Ramkawalsingh threw 11.82m to capture a Bronze Medal.

The basketball team captured the bronze medal while the volley team copped 4th place.

Proud parent Lee-Anthony Walker, Jariah Walker’s father said he was proud of his son and his accomplishments in making his mark in the world games.

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Special Olympians recognised for World Games performances
By  Sean Taylor, sean.taylor@trinidadexpress.com
Published on Aug 8, 2015, 12:01 am AST

SPECIAL WELCOME: T&T special athletes enter the VIP Room of the Hasely Crawford Stadium through a guard of honour yesterday. The team won 48 medals at the recently concluded World Games in Los Angeles, California, USA. --Photo: ANISTO ALVES.

Parents and other family members packed the Hasely Crawford Stadium VIP room yesterday to acknowledge the athletes of the successful Special Olympics Trinidad and Tobago (SOTT) team.

The event was hosted by the Digicel Foundation, who are a long-time partner of the SOTT. The athletes spent a week in Los Angeles, California last month where they competed in the Special Olympics World Games and won 48 medals in the eight disciplines they participated in.

"We were thrilled, we were supporting the athletes for eight years now," said Penny Gomez, CEO of the foundation.

"We're just happy to be a part of the development process of the athletes".

According to her, ahead of the Games the foundation partnered with the SOTT to do a developmental programme and they have been impressed with the fact that the number of athletes and coaches have increased as a result.

"It means that people are training," she said. "So we knew that they were going to come back being more successful than the last Games, because they were putting the work in."

The T&T football team that participated at the Games exemplified this hard work, as they finished unbeaten and ran away with the trophy. Devan Mahadeo, skipper of the football team, was elated that their hard work had paid off.

"It was nice that we won all our games," he said. "It was our goal to do our best, and come home with the gold because we wanted to make our country proud."

The next major event for the year involving SOTT will be the Floor Hockey National Games in October. The sport is one that the T&T athletes compete in at the winter games which is a smaller-scale indoor version of ice hockey.

At the end of the function, tokens were distributed to all 64 athletes who participated at the Games. The coaches also received awards for the hard work they put in to get the athletes ready for the games this year.

The Digicel Foundation are also the corporate sponsors of the National Games which are held every year; an event they intend to continue supporting.

Gomez said they will also continue their focus on the developmental programme which will have an emphasis on athlete retention, while also increasing the overall number of athletes as well.

The foundation also intends to raise awareness for persons with special needs, and making sure people have a better understanding and treat them equally.

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Ex-NBA stars support Special Olympians
Friday, October 2 2015 (T&T Newsday)

VISITING EX-NBA players Tyrone Bogues and Adonal Foyle brought some excitement to special olympians and other challenged persons last Saturday, when the two made a surprise appearance at the 6th Annual Eunice Kennedy Shriver (EKS) Day celebration at Nelson Mandela Park in St Clair.

Bogues and Foyle were in the country on the weekend, working with young basketball players from across the Caribbean at the Digicel Jump Start basketball clinic at the UWI Sports and Physical Education Centre.

Hosted by the Special Olympics of Trinidad and Tobago and supported by the Digicel Foundation, the event celebrates the life of Mrs Shriver, founder of the Special Olympics, and is also a call to action for persons around the world to adopt a more inclusive way of life. Among the participants were two hundred athletes from the Lady Hochoy School South, Goodwill Industries, National Centre for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD) and the Servol Special School.

The games were first held 47 years ago in 1968; they are now held in over 170 countries worldwide.

Activities at Mandela Park included “fun” events such as musical hoops, sack and ball-and-spoon races, fill the bottle relay, pass the ball and ball shuttle.

Bogues and Foyle created quite a stir among the participants. Tyrone ‘Muggsy’ Bogues was the shortest player ever to compete in the NBA, playing at guard for the Charlotte Hornets, the Washington Bullets, the Golden State Warriors and the Toronto Raptors. Adonal Foyle is a Vincentian/American who played at centre for Golden State, the Orlando Magic and the Memphis Grizzlies. Joining them was legendary coach PJ Carlisimo; the three men greeted and supported the athletes throughout the various activities.

The day came to an end with the “fire truck pull,” an activity which has closed off the event for the past three years.

[Socapro]

Special Olympics National Games on Saturday
Thursday, March 10 2016 (T&T Newsday)

President Anthony Carmona will on Saturday open the 34th National Games for persons with intellectual disabilities which is being organised by Special Olympics Trinidad and Tobago. The National Games will get underway at 8am at the Jean Pierre Complex, Mucurapo.

Participants include 600 athletes, 150 coaches and chaperones representing 20 special schools, with 275 volunteers in eight Olympic– type sports: Aquatics, Athletics, Basketball, Bocce, Equestrian, Football, Powerlifting and Volleyball. Action takes place at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Jean Pierre Complex, Police Barracks, Mounted Branch, Long Circular Health & Wellness Club in Port of Spain and the Diego Martin Community Swimming Pool.

Golf will be used as a demonstration sport.

At 5 pm on Saturday there will be an exciting and entertaining show featuring top local artistes to celebrate the athletes.

Over 200 members of the protective services, gyms and sports clubs who took part in a Law Enforcement Run which began in San Fernando, and continued along the Brian Lara Promenade into Wrightson Road, will light the “Flame of Hope” in the Jean Pierre Complex..

SOTT , the local arm of Special Olympics International, a “Charitable Non-Profit Organisation”, does not charge its athletes or their families a fee for participation in any of its programmes and services and rely on the generosity of individuals, companies, civic groups and partners to ensure no one is left on the sidelines due to economic barriers.

The major sponsor for the Games is the Digicel Foundation while Blue Waters is the official water provider, The Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs gives an annual subvention and individuals support by donating in-kind services or to individual sports.

On Saturday, SOTT will partner with Nestle Health Promotion to offer health screening to its athletes who are vulnerable to lifestyle diseases as a result of inactivity.

All persons with intellectual disabilities and their families are invited to the Foyer of the Main Stands of the Hasely Crawford Stadium to be screened.

SOTT uses sports to bring about social change for persons with intellectual disabilities, and to encourage acceptance, inclusion and respect. SOTT is inviting citizens to get on board in whatever capacity - volunteering, coaching, officiating or donating.