As a Trinbagonian, I feel extremely proud when I see our athletes do well on the international stage. Jehue Gordon, George Bovell, Dylan Carter are the most recent successes. But what is being done to ensure that more talents like these are brought to the fore?I was very impressed by the Ministry of Sport's vacation sport camps to which I took my sons (11 and 9 years old) in St Augustine. They were both involved in football and were very enthusiastic about playing everyday for the two weeks.
For the most part, the camp was well organised, the children were fed and given water and got adequate coaching on proper technique. And all at no cost to me!The atmosphere I saw when I went to pick up my boys was one that every child should experience. I don't think my boys will go on to make the national team but I'm sure a couple of the boys I saw at the camp could. I think that kind of setting is the ideal way to find and nurture talent from a very young age.
I wonder how many of the leaders of sport organisations complain to the minister about funding to support programmes like this. I'm sure quite a bit of money was spent to put on the camps across the country.I would like to see a breakdown of how much funding was allocated to development and how much was pumped into national teams travelling to competitions abroad. Maybe the ministry should publish that information.
The future of sport lies in the youth. The more they are involved in sport, the more champions we will produce.
Nathaniel Carter
via e-mail