National swimmer Shanntol Ince will be honoured today when the Ministry of Sport and the Sports Company of T&T (SporTT) will host a reception for the swimmer at the Flamingo Room, Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre, Port-of-Spain from 3 pm today.
The event is in celebration of the 18 year old para-athlete who won four gold medals at the Third Youth Para Pan American Games held in Buenos Aires, Argentina and returned home Monday afternoon after a flight delay in Panama.
Days earlier, she swam to gold in 400 metres freestyle, 100m backstroke, 100m butterfly and 100m freestyle at her first junior event.
Ince won gold in the 400m freestyle (S9) gold medal on Thursday in 5:30.41 and followed up with another gold in the 100 metres backstroke (S9) 1:23.12 on Friday.
She then added precious gold medals in the 100m butterfly (1:21.89) and 100m freestyle (1:12.86) at the Jannete Campbell Swimming Complex, National High Performance Sports Centre, known as CeNARD (Centro Nacional de Alto Rendimiento Deportivo).
The lone T&T representative at the Games, Ince's four gold haul placed T&T seventh on the medal standings.
It was the first time that Ince competed at the youth event. She also represented T&T at the Paralympic Games in London last year as part of a two-member team.
Formerly coached by Minister of Sports, Anil Roberts, Ince won the Spirit of Sport Award (SOSA) last year for Best Athlete with a Disability (Physical).
Undoubtedly this experience at the Pan American youth level will boost her confidence ahead of other major events in the coming years, such as the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2015 Pan Am Games.
Minister Roberts is expected to attend and deliver the feature address at the reception where other senior officials of the Ministry and SporTT as well as executives of the T&T Paralympic Committee, para-athlete coaches and London 2012 partners from BP and the British High Commission are expected to attend.
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