What it has been for 60 years....under-achieving.
Look at this load of tripe: "It's bright ciz I say it is"...steups...notice the references to SporTT...translation - all the money we are spending has us "on the edge"....of WHAT? DISASTER?
FUTURE'S BRIGHT
Pan Am Games Chef de mission:
Kwame Laurence
Monday, July 30th 2007
Going into the 15th Pan American Games here in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago's Chef de mission, Annette Knott, had been hoping for an improvement on the country's 2003 showing.
However, the two gold medals, four silver and one bronze earned in the Dominican Republic four years ago proved to be out of Team T&T's reach at Rio 2007.T&T captured four medals--one silver and three bronze--to finish 21st at the 42-country hemispheric Games.
Knott, though, is not disappointed.
"You always hope to do better than the time before. But I made a joke that with all the fourths we got, we should play Play Whe. We were fourth in the (men's) relays and fourth in the (men's) hockey. So, we're just on the edge, which shows that we are benefiting from all the development with the Sports Company...
"We're a small nation," she continued, "and we're able to compete with countries that have vast numbers. We had a good team and good management. And a lot of team members are very young, so for the next Pan Am, those fourth places will definitely change."
Emile Abraham was T&T's silver medallist here in Rio, the experienced cyclist finishing second in the men's road race. Taekwondo fighter Chinedum Osuji, swimmer George Bovell III and shot putter Cleopatra Borel-Brown all bagged bronze.
"High points for the first bronze from Osuji, since he only got in on a wild card. That medal proved the wild card was well worth it. George was so disappointed and depressed that he didn't medal in the final of the 100 free, but came back and medalled in the 50 free. His determination is a lesson for other athletes.
"Emile," Knott continued, "has been working very hard for years, and has always been able to compete. He came here with good expectations, and we're pleased with his performance. And Cleopatra has become so reliable. We can always depend on her for good performances."
The T&T Chef noted that injuries to Darrel Brown, Aaron Armstrong and Richard Thompson probably robbed T&T of a couple more track and field medals.
"We stood a very good chance in the individual 100, and the (4x100m) relay could easily have been a gold medal."
Knott told the Express it is very important for T&T to field strong teams in all sporting disciplines at the 2011 Pan Am Games, in Guadalajara, Mexico.
"The level at Pan Am is not just about turning up. We want to be competitive."
Candice Scott, a bronze medallist in the women's hammer throw at the 2003 Pan Am Games, was at the closing ceremony at Maracana Stadium last night carrying the red, white and black, the 26-year-old athlete setting the stage for Team T&T to bid a warm farewell to cold Rio.
Scott, who continues to battle with the knee injury that ruled her out of the entire 2006 season, finished ninth in the hammer throw here in Rio.
"Candice is a role model," Knott declared. "She has dealt with her disappointment and adversity with tremendous dignity and class. Over the years she has brought honour to T&T. In the absence of the four medallists, she is the right choice."
United States captured 97 gold medals, 88 silver and 52 bronze to top the Rio 2007 medal table. Cuba (59 gold, 35 silver, 41 bronze) finished second, while hosts Brazil (54 gold, 40 silver, 67 bronze) copped third spot.at least someone is honest....
Rio's modest returns
Fazeer Mohammed
Monday, July 30th 2007
Were we expecting too much from Rio?
Four years ago, George Bovell III returned from the Pan American Games in Santo Domingo with two gold and two silver medals. Now, after the latest edition of the premier multi-sport event in the hemisphere, the entire Trinidad and Tobago team, including the 2003 hero, has only managed a comparatively modest collection of one silver and three bronzes from the nearly two weeks of competition in Brazil.
On the surface, therefore, the experience must be a let-down for all concerned and, whatever the mitigating circumstances, the returning officials, and certainly those in the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee, should be forthcoming with an objective analysis of where we failed to live up to expectations or where the performances were as good as could have been expected in the circumstances.
This is not intended to take anything away from the worthy medallists: cyclist Emile Abraham (silver in the 156-km road event), and the bronze-winning trio of martial artist Chinedum Osuji (tae-kwon-do), swimmer Bovell (50-metre freestyle) and athlete Cleopatra Borel-Brown (shot put).
They have every reason to take pride in their efforts and success.
Nor should it be about making excuses or getting defensive in the face of media criticism, but providing an honest, forthright assessment and putting everything into a context that we may not otherwise be able to appreciate from this distance. Too often, probing questions are interpreted as personal barbs and result in irrational and emotive counter-attacks that achieve nothing by way of a rational discourse over any issue.
In the case of the events in Rio de Janeiro, was it unreasonable for us to expect much more in terms of the medal haul, especially as the region's perennial superpower, the United States, did not participate with their very best athletes in many of the individual disciplines?
There may also be considerations of form and fitness, for injury ruled top sprinter Darrel Brown, among others, out of consideration while Bovell's complaint about the switching of the swimming finals to the morning sessions suggested that he was never really going to be at his best. Then there is the question of the timing of the Pan American Games, coming as it does a year before the next Summer Olympics and at a time when certain competitors are already into pre-Olympic mode and therefore well short of being in the very peak of condition.
Let us not overlook the factor of the weather conditions as well, for in the same way that we were sympathetic towards our West Indies cricketers having to take on England last month in the miserably cold venues at Headingley and Chester-le-Street especially, there must have been some discomfort in the outdoor events for Caribbean-based competitors participating at this time of year midway down the South American continent.
For those who have forgotten everything they learned in basic geography or deliberately distort climatic realities just for the sake of a cheap marketing slogan, now is certainly not summertime all over the world. Not only is it completely non-existent in the tropics where we live, but it is actually winter in the Southern Hemisphere, as evidenced by the last few days of competition in Rio where it was miserably cold with temperatures dipping into the teens. Hopefully, our competitors would have been prepared for that and not fallen into the trap of "summer holiday" foolishness that we have stupidly accepted as part of our everyday jargon now.
Chilly temperatures is one thing, but overheated expectations are entirely another, and may explain why the men's hockey team, after talking brazenly about playing possum in the group stage against Argentina for the sake of saving their best for the final, are back home with no colour of metal at all. It would have been even more painful to see the Canadians, who got past Trinidad and Tobago in extra-time in the semi-finals, upsetting the Argentines in the gold medal match-up, while Kwandwane Browne's side could not lift themselves sufficiently for the bronze medal clash with Chile.
It seems a classic case of not counting chickens before they hatch, or as I learnt last week, not picking zabocas before they are full, no matter how invitingly they dangle from the ends of those branches.
The ripening of Dexter St Louis' table tennis career has brought him considerable success at Caribbean level. But in what could have been the 39-year old's last Pan Am Games, he and stepdaughter Rheann Chung were left to ponder on what could have been. The bacchanal that prevailed following St Louis' shock first-round exit from singles competition at the Caribbean Championships earlier this month might have been a mental setback that carried into Rio, despite the public patching up of relations between players and officials for the sake of maintaining the Pan Am focus.
Yet it should be noted that, even at the best of times, the hemispheric championships have been an insurmountable hurdle for arguably our best player ever.
Finishing up at the exact midpoint of the medal standings (21st of 42 nations) isn't all that bad, but should it have been better, especially as smaller Caribbean territories like the Bahamas (two golds), Antigua/Barbuda and the Netherlands Antilles (one gold apiece) finished ahead of us along with the inevitable island-nation frontrunners of Cuba (59 golds) and Jamaica (three gold medals)?
We don't need an inquisition, just a balanced explanation so we can put our disappointing final numbers in proper context.
fazeer2001@hotmail.com
