Dr Cliff Bertrand

The Na­tion­al Track & Field Cham­pi­onships have been re-sched­uled for Au­gust 13-14 at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um. This meet, orig­i­nal­ly sched­uled for June 25-26, was to serve as the se­lec­tion process to qual­i­fy for the World Games Cham­pi­onships. The World Games is on Ju­ly 25-26 in Ko­rea. The is­sue has now shift­ed to a sub­jec­tive process. This move de­nies the up and com­ing ath­lete due process. Is it fair and foul or foul and fair to do it this way? The of­fi­cials al­ready know who are go­ing. The ath­letes do not. The sys­tem like any of Shake­speare's plays is of two kinds-tragedy or com­e­dy of er­rors. In­de­ci­sion and pro­cras­ti­na­tion have be­come the mode of the NAAA's op­er­a­tions. Is there a plau­si­ble ex­pla­na­tion for hes­i­ta­tion by the Sport Com­pa­ny, the NAAA and the Min­istry of Sports, the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion to com­mu­ni­cate? No. This has been the case since the Na­tion­al Sec­ondary School Sports. No one is talk­ing to any­one. These bod­ies com­mu­ni­cate with each oth­er through the me­dia. Con­flict res­o­lu­tion is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed.

The TTOC is equal­ly guilty by as­so­ci­a­tion in this tragedy. They have the pow­er of ve­to as to who will rep­re­sent the coun­try at the World Cham­pi­onships. How­ev­er, they choose to sit and watch it play out.

In­ter­est­ing­ly enough, there is jok­er in the pack-the Sports Com­pa­ny. The ace in the hole. The sys­tem op­er­ates at a lev­el of or­gan­i­sa­tion that al­lows the or­gan­i­sa­tion too much space and flex­i­bil­i­ty to breathe. One may ar­gue the flex­i­bil­i­ty de­spite its loose­ness is not con­sid­ered fail­ure but im­prove­ments.

Rigid­i­ty or lack of ac­tion there­of is a virtue typ­i­cal of T&T sports man­age­ment schemes and not as a bla­tant dis­ad­van­tage pack­age. No track. No tri­als. NO Cham­pi­onships. No vis­i­ta­tion rights. Apolo­gies and threats. The NAAA is giv­ing the Sport Com­pa­ny un­til Ju­ly 20 to com­plete the track. If not, what hap­pens? You are too smart to ne­go­ti­ate. The NAAA is plagued by the tragedy of in­de­ci­sions. Re­mem­ber Carif­ta!

How­ev­er, this com­e­dy of er­rors presents an op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­form the way sports are pre­sent­ed in T&T. The tragedy has "trashed our in­ter­na­tion­al rep­u­ta­tion" We are not on­ly pro­duc­ing sprint­ers but lead­ers who find it dif­fi­cult to com­mu­ni­cate with each oth­er for the com­mon good. This would not be too much cause for con­cern if the rea­son was some un­fore­seen cir­cum­stances. Af­ter hav­ing a year to plan and ex­e­cute, the NAAA tells us that the re­pairs to the track will not meet the com­ple­tion dead­line date. Could the tech­ni­cal plan­ning have been ini­ti­at­ed and com­plet­ed dur­ing the of­fi­cial dry sea­son 2010? Why wait un­til the ap­proach­ing end of the of­fi­cial dry sea­son to com­mence work on the track when the avail­able time does not al­low for any rainy days or days of in­ac­tiv­i­ty? Those re­spon­si­ble would be hard-pressed to plau­si­bly ex­plain this sce­nario. It reeks of dere­lic­tion of du­ty; lack of prop­er and time­ly plan­ning, and lack of over­sight and in­sight by some gov­ern­ing body.

Where were Sportt, the TTOC, the NAAA and the Min­istry of Sport in this? Know­ing there is no oth­er pre­pared fa­cil­i­ty, they should have been more de­ter­mined and proac­tive in ap­proach­ing the re­pairs to the sta­di­um. How would this im­pact on the sched­ule of our ath­letes at home and abroad and on the se­lec­tion of teams? What about our in­ter­na­tion­al cred­i­bil­i­ty? Post­pone­ment for some rea­son be­yond our con­trol is un­der­stand­able but for lack of prop­er plan­ning? That is dis­com­bob­u­lat­ing! The un­avail­abil­i­ty of the fa­cil­i­ties to host the Cham­pi­onships was a dis­as­ter. As an in­ter­est­ing ob­serv­er, I asked my­self some ques­tions.

1. Was the NAAA in plan­ning to host the Cham­pi­onships aware of:

(a) The need for re-sur­fac­ing the track;

(b) The time fac­tor for such ac­tiv­i­ty;

(c) The need for suit­able weath­er to com­plete the re-sur­fac­ing of the track;

(d) The need to in­form the Sport Com­pa­ny the im­por­tance of en­sur­ing that the con­tract with the Ger­man com­pa­ny Pro­plas­tics be so drawn up that the track would be com­plet­ed by the end of May (not mid-June) and hand­ed over of­fi­cial­ly then.

2. Since the na­tion­al bud­get was ap­proved in Oc­to­ber and the NAAA was aware of the need for re-sur­fac­ing the track, was there any urg­ing to start the work on the track from March?

Sure­ly, this mat­ter must have been ad­dressed at the Gen­er­al Coun­cil, if not, the coun­cil is not ful­fill­ing one of its du­ties. The NAAA must share the blame for the un­for­tu­nate cir­cum­stances. I em­pathise with the ath­letes who have been prepar­ing with the hope of re­turn­ing their best per­for­mances to rep­re­sent the coun­try at the World Games. Re­ports are that the NAAA pres­i­dent was barred from en­ter­ing the con­struc­tion site for just drop­ping in unan­nounced Tri­ni style. In­ap­pro­pri­ate! Safe­ty is­sues, con­tract vi­o­la­tion is­sues. The ques­tion comes to mind, what were you look­ing for? What did you hope to find? Was the in­tent based on cu­rios­i­ty or to ex­am­ine the com­po­si­tion of the struc­ture? Here are some pos­si­bil­i­ties to con­sid­er: Your ex­am­i­na­tion team should in­clude an en­gi­neer with track in­sti­tut­ing knowl­edge, oth­er­wise you are on cu­rios­i­ty trip! You are anx­ious but tres­pass­ing.

1. Analyse the en­vi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions. Av­er­age rain­fall pat­tern, tem­per­a­ture range, and nat­ur­al wind con­di­tions;

2. Re­view the work­load ex­pec­ta­tions for the sur­face;

3. Test ma­te­r­i­al com­po­si­tion;

4. En­gi­neer­ing of the track;

5. Plan for on­go­ing main­te­nance;

6. Con­tin­gency plan­ning.

It is es­sen­tial to have your track in­stalled by an ex­pe­ri­enced tech­ni­cal­ly pro­fi­cient syn­thet­ic track man­u­fac­tur­er. This you have!