"En­vy and jeal­ousy blocks in­spi­ra­tion" – these were the words of Sport Min­is­ter, The Ho­n­ourable Anil Roberts as he gave the open­ing ad­dress at the 2011 Sec­ondary Schools' Sport Sym­po­sium. The high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed event was held from April 18th to 21st at the ball­room of the Cas­ca­dia Ho­tel, St. Ann's by the Guardian's Sport Desk and the Min­istry of Sport and Youth Af­fairs. Roberts told some 250 ea­ger stu­dents (who are as­pir­ing lead­ers in the ath­let­ic world) that "en­joy­ing the suc­cess of oth­ers like Na­tion­al Crick­et Cap­tain, Dar­ren Gan­ga (who was al­so present at the sym­po­sium) is the way to your suc­cess."

The Min­is­ter al­so made men­tion of the 1982 CAC Games in Cu­ba (which he was for­tu­nate enough to at­tend with his par­ents). He said, "It was at these games I saw ath­letes sac­ri­fic­ing them­selves for their coun­tries even when there were no fi­nan­cial re­wards." He used this ex­am­ple to urge stu­dents to give their all when rep­re­sent­ing their coun­try and ap­pre­ci­ate where they're at.

Al­so speak­ing at the Sym­po­sium en­ti­tled "In­spi­ra­tion" were lead­ers such as Meris­sa Aguilleira - T&T and West In­dies Women's Crick­et Cap­tain, Don La Fou­cade - in­spi­ra­tional speak­er, Je­hue Gor­don – Na­tion­al 100 and 400 me­tres hur­dle cham­pi­on, World Ju­nior 400 me­tres cham­pi­on and Olympic Games Fi­nal­ist, Karene As­che – Ca­lyp­so Monarch 2011, An­tho­ny Gray – For­mer West In­dies fast bowler, Crick­et coach/men­tor UTT, Jack Warn­er - Min­is­ter of Works and Trans­port, FI­FA Vice Pres­i­dent and Spe­cial Ad­vi­sor to T&T Foot­ball Fed­er­a­tion, Chris­t­ian Homer – T&T Ju­nior Sports of the Year 2010, Ju­nior Olympic Gold Medal­list, George Bovell – Olympic Swim­ming Cham­pi­on, Glenn Ra­mad­hars­ingh - Min­is­ter of the Peo­ple and So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Janelle Pen­ny Com­mis­siong-Chow - Miss Uni­verse 1977.

Look out in the next is­sue of gieMAGAZINE for more high­lights on "In­spi­ra­tion".

Stephanie Seenath

Se­nior Press Pass

Cor­re­spon­dent

Shi­va Boys' Hin­du Col­lege, Pe­nal