Wednesday 9th September 2015. The final day of competition for Team TTO kicked off at the Tuana’imato Sports Facility. Last events carded were the 50m freestyle and 400m Freestyle Final.

Jeron swam the 50m freestyle preliminaries finishing 25.15. In order to move on to the finals, there was a swim off between Jamaica, Barbados, Jersey and Trinidad and Tobago. He won the swim off with a time of 24.74 which is a new personal best time and qualified him for the B Finals. In the Finals, Jeron placed 15^th overall with a time of 25.10.

Amira Pilgrim placed 2nd in the preliminary rounds of the women's 50m freestyle in 27.13, which earned her a qualifying spot in the A Finals later that evening. Swimming out of lane 8 in the Finals, Amira completed her lap in 27.11 to earn 7^th place overall of the fastest swimmers.

Trinidad and Tobago joined together with other neighbouring countries from the Caribbean to swim in an exhibition 400m Freestyle Final. Team TTO paired with Grenada, Antigua and Bermuda, Barbados and Turks & Caicos. The mixed team finished in 3^rd position in 3:30.20.

One highlight for Team TTO was the opportunity to take part in UNICEF’s Just Play Programme. The Samoa 2015 Chef Jeannette Small, Akidah and Akanni engaged in football with young kids from the small Pacific Island. The Just Play Programme promotes physical activity for children aged 6 - 12 years old through football-related activities, while also addressing endemic issues such as non-communicable diseases, poor nutrition, gender equality, stigma and discrimination towards children with disabilities.

At 10:00am (4:00pm TT time), Akidah Briggs contested for a medal in the Girls Shot Put. Being the only Caribbean national in the shot put event, Akidah placed 6th with a throw of 14.14m. Just shy of her target goal for the Games, she’s determined to use the experience to improve her throws. “It wasn't the result I expected, but I did my best. I plan to use this experience as a stepping stone to go back home and train harder for future events,” said Akidah.
 

Akidah described the Commonwealth Youth Games as a more relaxed environment in comparison to the World Junior Championships. “In World's (Junior Championships) I was tense because there were more competitors and a bigger crowd. The experience helped prepare me for this competition (Commonwealth Youth Games) because in World's I put myself under pressure by thinking about getting more distance. In this Games I focused on my technique and also thought about how I got my personal best in Carifta in April (15.09).”
 
Later on that day, Amira and Jeron took to the swimming pool once again. Both athletes competed in 50m Breaststroke event. Jeron finished 4th in the preliminaries, setting a personal best and a new national junior record with a time of 30.51. He previously held the national junior record and he went 0.59 better in this event.
 
Jeron’s time was just enough for him to qualify for the A Finals of the 50m Breaststroke. In the end, he placed 7th overall, breaking the National Junior record again in 30.45. While his teammate Amira swam another personal best time for the Games in the 50m breaststroke, also finishing 4th in her heat in 36.94. However, her time was not fast enough to secure her a spot in the Finals.
 
Away from competition, Team TTO’s Samoa 2015 Chef took the athletes to the 'Voice of the athletes’ booth which included activities on being a leader, playing fair, playing safe and protecting the environment.

Blessing Okagbare has reportedly been banned from appearing at next year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro by Nigeria following a row over her appearance at the Diamond League meeting in Zurich last week.

The 26-year-old sprinter and long jumper was a late withdrawal from the 200 metres at the International Association of Athletics Federations World Championships in Beijing last month, reportedly due to a hamstring injury, and she also did not travel to Brazzaville for the All-Africa Games currently underway.

Okagbare did compete, however, in Zurich on Thursday (Septemer 3), finishing second in the 100m with a time of 10.98sec.

This decision appears to have angered Nigeria's National Sports Commission (NSC) with its Director General Al Hassan Yakmu telling the country's Guardian newspaper: "I was shocked when I saw Okagbare competing in the Diamond League in Zurich last Thursday.

"I was wondering if it was the same Okagbare who refused to compete for Nigeria in the 200m event at the IAAF World Championship in Beijing.

"She even opted out of Team Nigeria for the All-Africa Games in Congo.

"Why?"

He added: “I have said it times without number that any athlete who feels too big to compete for Nigeria in the All-Africa Games should not bother about the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

"No athlete is bigger than Nigeria.

"I played volleyball for this country, so there is nothing an athlete will tell me about sports.

“Tell me what countries like Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda and South Africa is doing for their athletes that Nigeria is not doing?

"If there is a problem, we should sit down to iron it out, instead of rubbishing our country before the international community.

"We have to take a stand to save our nation from athletes who feel they are untouchable."

Okagbare, who has yet to comment on the supposed ban, won an Olympic long jump bronze medal at Beijing 2008.

She won the 100m and 200m at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and claimed World Championship silver in the long jump and bronze in the 200m at Moscow 2013.

The fact that wicketkeeper/batsman Denesh Ramdin resigned from the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) may have cost him his job as captain of the West Indies Test team.

This according to former West Indies manager Omar Khan who says that he understands that many of the senior players have resigned from the players body after they again negotiated a poor contract for them

Khan said: “It is alleged that a number of senior West Indies players have resigned from the Players Association (WIPA) with Ramdin being one of them, and it seems as if this has cost him the captaincy.”

Ramdin was replaced by ODI captain Jason Holder last week as captain of the Test team for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka. The West Indies play two Test matches, three ODIs and two T20s on this tour and Holder will take charge of both the Tests and the ODIs, while a T20 captain is yet to be confirmed. Whether the West Indies selectors continue with St Lucian Darren Sammy or choose another candidate is yet to be seen. Opener Kraigg Brathwaite will serve as deputy to Holder for the Test series.

Khan continued: “The relationship between the WICB and the WIPA is known to be very close and it may have been the thinking of the board that they needed their Test captain to be a member of the players body. I hope that this is not the case because if it is, then it is a very sad state of affairs.”

Ramdin was one of the players who aborted the West Indies tour of India last October over a payment structure dispute between WIPA and the WICB.  

“I cannot understand how they could have removed Ramdin from the post of captain. He skippered in 14 Test matches, won four, lost seven and drew three. This record was not bad given the fact that he was rebuilding a team,” added Khan.

“All the other international teams have given their captains time to build their squad and it is unfortunate that Ramdin’s tenure has been cut short. The WICB has failed in terms of preparing their leaders. When you look at the other countries, they send their captain and those who they think could become leaders to seminars to develop them. This is not done at the WICB, they just ignore this and once they continue to operate in this manner our cricket will continue to be in the doldrums.”

Khan said he was totally puzzled at the current situation and would like those involved to come clean. “The WICB sends out a press release stating that the directors of the board unanimously agreed to remove Ramdin based on a recommendation from the selectors. Yet one of the directors Azim Bassarath comes out and says that he knew nothing of this and is not supporting the move. At the moment people are trying to fool the people of the Caribbean and it is about time someone speaks the truth.”

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Tuesday 8th September 2015. The second day of competition at the Commonwealth Youth Games was a day of personal best times for the swimmers at the Tuana’imato Sports Facility in Samoa. On Jeron's first event for the morning, he completed the 50m backstroke in 29.01 which was just enough to qualify for the B Final later that evening. “I slipped on the touch pad but shook it off and completed 0.5 seconds slower than my personal best,” he stated. But despite not attaining a personal best in the heats, young Jeron was determined to swim 28.0 in the B Final. Later that evening, Jeron went on to complete the swim in 28.71, finishing in 11th place overall.
In his second event, he was able to attain a personal best time after he swam 1:07.83 in the Men's 100m breaststroke. However, he was disqualified on completion of the event.  Jeron stated that in his breaststroke event he did 1.05 seconds better, to gain a new personal best of 1:07.83.
 
Amira Pilgrim also swam a personal best time of 59.45 in Women's 100m Freestyle. “I was happy with my swim, there were a few technical errors that will be corrected for my swim (B Final) later today,” she explained. Amira further stated that she paced off the athlete next to her in lane 3 who finished in 3rd place position in the heat. In the B Final, Amira improved on her earlier time by finishing 11th overall with a time of 59.35.

Akanni had a disappointing end to the Commonwealth Youth Games after he false started in the boys 200m heats. "I'm disappointed since I knew I could have done well, based on the results of all the heats", he said. However, he looks forward to treating his injury when he returns home from Samoa. Akanni unfortunately succumbed to an injury after running the 100m heats on his first day of competition (7th Sept) and opted out of running the semi – finals.
 

Later this afternoon, Akidah Briggs will kick things off for Team TTO in the girls shot put event. While Jeron is carded to compete in the 50m breaststroke and 100m butterfly and Amira will compete in 50m Breaststroke.

National endurance riders, Varun Maharajh and Akil Campbell, concluded Trinidad and Tobago’s 2015 Elite Pan American Cycling Championship campaign with a fifth place finish in the Madison event as the curtains fell at the Parque Penalolen Velodrome in Santiago, Chile, on Sunday night.

Both Maharajh and Campbell were debutants at this year’s regional meet and together closed off TT ’s account with a commendable showing.

The returning 17-member cycling contingent is expected to arrive at the Piarco International Airport today after five days of tough competition.

Olympic rider, Njisane Phillip, was the only local athlete to medal at this year’s Championships as he captured silver in the Men Sprint event on the final day of competition.

International Cycling Union (UCI) points attained here will now significantly assist Phillip towards his World Cup and World Championship qualification.

Meanwhile, Maharajh’s seventh place finish in the Men’s Omnium event has opened up a possibility of TT being represented at a World Cup by an endurance cyclist for the first time in this nation’s history.

However, confirmation of a spot for TT at the coming three World Cups will only be made public when the sport’s governing body (UCI) releases their official point standings on September 15.

The World Cups will be held in Cali, Colombia (November 10-11), Cambridge, New Zealand (December 5-6) and Hong Kong, China (January 16-17, 2016).

Phillip was also just short of a medal in the Keirin when he was pipped on the line into fourth position. But, the 24-year-old sprinter was still able to gain valuable UCI points.

The Male Team Sprint fell just nine hundredths of a second from earning TT ’s first Team Sprint medal since 2010. The trio of Jude Codrington, Kwesi Browne and Phillip qualified third fastest to meet Brasil in the bronze medal rideoff but were unable to step onto the podium.

TT also featured several debutants at the Championships inclusive of the Campbell siblings Akil and Teniel, Aziza Browne, Jodi Goodridge and Gavyn Nero. The Campbells displayed good endurance to finish within the top 10 in their respective events with Teniel setting a new National Record in the 3km Individual Pursuit for women.

Maharajh last push in the Omnium VI – Points Race saw him falling a mere 10 points from a medal position.

Following their recent performances, the Trinidad & Tobago Cycling Federation sees this event as a dual pathway to Rio2016 Olympic qualification, and for TT ’s top tier male sprint cyclists to build a solid foundation towards their drive to Tokyo 2020 and beyond.

This was the first time that TT took part in the Team Pursuit at Elite Pan Am Championships where they shattered the previous National Record by 15 seconds. Though this may not have placed them into a medal position, the experience gained and the quality of Junior endurance cyclists within TT ’s ranks raises hopes of a potential Team Pursuit qualification for the XXXII Olympiad in Japan.

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