Cleopa­tra Borel-Brown took a trip down mem­o­ry lane last week when she vis­it­ed the two schools in Ma­yaro, in­clud­ing the pri­ma­ry school she at­tend­ed be­fore be­com­ing a three-time Olympian and en­er­gy com­pa­ny BP Trinidad and To­ba­go (bpTT) ath­lete am­bas­sador. The vis­its were or­gan­ised by bpTT-of­fi­cial spon­sor of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Olympic and Par­a­lympic Com­mit­tees. A re­lease from the en­er­gy com­pa­ny out­lined Borel-Brown's itin­er­ary. Her first stop was the Ma­yaro Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School, where she had spent her ear­ly school years and where the cafe­te­ria hall is named in her ho­n­our. She was greet­ed by prin­ci­pal Andy Paul and some of her past teach­ers, who pre­sent­ed her with a plaque in trib­ute to her achieve­ment as a past stu­dent.

Af­ter a short ques­tion and an­swer ses­sion with the pupils, Borel-Brown of­fered the chil­dren some words of en­cour­age­ment.

"Not so long ago I was sit­ting where you are now and that is why I know that every one of you can be a cham­pi­on in your own way. I want you all to do well at school and try hard at every­thing that you put your minds to and I am sure that you will be suc­cess­ful. I know that you will make Ma­yaro proud, and one day, I'll be wait­ing in line for an au­to­graph from you." The ath­lete con­tin­ued her jour­ney to Ma­yaro Sec­ondary School, where she re­ceived her sec­ondary ed­u­ca­tion. "When I en­tered Uni­ver­si­ty in the Unit­ed States, I tried out for the track and field team and when I told the coach how far I could throw he laughed but still gave me a chance. I worked hard and stud­ied and prac­ticed every day, and in five years time, I was ranked the num­ber one col­le­giate shot putt com­peti­tor in the Unit­ed States.

"As the stu­dents who are mak­ing Ma­yaro Sec­ondary the pre­mier sport­ing school in T&T, I know that you will show every­one that you, too, can be con­querors," Borel-Brown said. Borel-Brown made her last stop for the day at the Ma­yaro Re­source Cen­tre where she con­duct­ed a train­ing ses­sion with 14-year-old Techi­er Fi­garo, an up-and-com­ing shot putt ath­lete from Ma­yaro. Fi­garo, a mem­ber of the Ma­yaro Ath­let­ic Club, is coached by Au­gus­tine Grant, who was al­so in­stru­men­tal in shap­ing the fu­ture of Borel-Brown when she was a mem­ber of the club in her for­ma­tive years.