Liam Gor­don

For­mer na­tion­al cy­clist and ad­min­is­tra­tor Comp­ton Gon­slaves was laid to rest yes­ter­day fol­low­ing a fu­ner­al ser­vice at the Church of the As­sump­tion, Long Cir­cu­lar Road, Mar­aval. Gon­salves died last Tues­day at the Mount Hope Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal. He was 85. Gon­salves rep­re­sent­ed T&T in the 1948 Sum­mer Olympics in Lon­don, the CAC Games and the world Cham­pi­onships and many oth­er in­ter­na­tion­al events. The for­mer St Mary's Col­lege stu­dent, mi­grat­ed from his na­tive Guyana to T&T at the age of 14.

In 1945 he bor­rowed a bi­cy­cle from his friend Har­ry Math­ieu and start­ed his rid­ing ca­reer. In 1946 he won a bronze medal in the 4,000 me­ters team pur­suit at the Fifth Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean Games in Colom­bia lat­er in the year he formed the club Sad­dle Boys. In­spired by high­er a call­ing Comp­ton trav­elled to Eng­land wear he want­ed to be a priest along the way he changed his mind and re­turned to T&T wear he pre­pared for the 1948 Sum­mer Olympics and was the first ath­lete to rep­re­sent T&T in cy­cling. Comp­ton was al­so in­stru­men­tal in form­ing the Cy­cling fed­er­a­tion in 1951 along with Fer­di De Gannes, in 1982 Comp­ton and De Ganes formed Madom­ma Wheel­ers.

In 1985 Gon­salves was in­duct­ed in­to the T&T Sports Hall of Fame in 2010, the T&T Cy­cling Fed­er­a­tion held the first an­nu­al Comp­ton Gon­salves All Star In­vi­ta­tion­al 300 me­ter pow­er sprint. Gon­salves suf­fered a bad fall dur­ing a 1000 me­ters In­ter­na­tion­al race at the Queen's Park Oval dur­ing a race along with Luis Toro of Venezuela, and end­ed up in a co­ma for a week in 1954. Fol­low­ing the ac­ci­dent Gon­salves nev­er re­turned to com­pet­i­tive rid­ing and ven­tured in­to train­ing and ad­min­is­tra­tion. Gon­salves youngest broth­er Joseph Gon­salves de­scribed him as an in­tense­ly prim­i­tive and a ded­i­cat­ed catholic "many of you will re­mem­ber him as out go­ing , tell-it-as-it is kind of man and ro­bust is how I re­mem­ber him".