The Trinidad Senior Championships (Trials) originally scheduled for June 23-26 at the Hasely Crawford Stadium is set for August 13-14. According to Trevor James, Public Relation Officer for the National Association of Athletics Administrations of Trinidad & Tobago (NAATT), the Hasely Crawford, one of two IAAF-certified track facilities in Trinidad, was undergoing renovations with the project estimated to be completed prior to June 23. However, completion was delayed and the trials could not be held at that venue.
Then there’s the Dwight Yorke Stadium, the other IAAF-certified track facility, but that track was also in poor condition. “We have teams coming in from other countries and we want to provide the best facility possible.” said James, a Trinidadian Olympian. He further pointed out that Trinidad’s other tracks, the Ato Boldon and the Manny Ramjohn Stadiums were not IAAF-certified. After the August 13-14 trials, the Trinidadian team will be selected for the Daegu World Championships, which begins exactly two weeks later, on August 26.
Is It Fair to the Athletes?
While some fans continue to argue that selecting athletes so close to the World Championships is unfair to the athletes, James defended the need for the Trials and the selection process, even though there’ll be only a two-week gap between the Trials and Daegu.
“The objective of the Trials is that we can select the athletes who will run well in head-to-head competition rather an athlete who has a fast time during the season. We will not bypass the Trials, because we want the best athlete who will excel in head-to-head competition.” This is also the process used by the USA and Jamaica, among other countries, to select their athletes for Daegu.
James noted that he was proud of recent performances of Kelly-Ann Baptiste, Richard Thompson and Keston Bledman, and that Trinidad has several promising young collegiate athletes such as Semoy Hackett and Zwede Hewitt.