Manning on Walcott’s achievements

Walcott’s achievement also spurred recuperating former Prime Minister Patrick Manning to say yesterday:

“Mr Walcott’s gold medal may have come as a surprise to most T&T nationals, but he did it humbly and without fanfare. He has done extremely well  and we laud him as a giant of a man to have propelled T&T towards a celebration that has been 36 years in the making for this gold medal. I wish to congratulate him very sincerely.”

“Mr Walcott was not only the recipient of a sports training programme in 2009 but it was also a training programme for elite athletes at that time of the programme. At the age of 19, Mr Walcott has made a stunning achievement for the whole world and again I congratulate him very sincerely and I feel sure in years to come we will hear more of his continuing achievements.”

Former PNM sports minister Gary Hunt  said Walcott was homegrown talent honed by a Cuban coach in an exchange programme with Cuba under the PNM administration. Hunt added: “The coach married a T&T national and he worked for the Sports Company of T&T. That Cuban coach achieved a record of improving the skills of athletes in certain sports such as javelin throwing. He was sent to Toco and various areas. In Toco he discovered young Walcott—and the rest of history.”