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Thursday, July 17, 2025

Gates open again: Ato Boldon Stadium for all

by

Anand Rampersad Ph.D.
25 days ago
20250623

Thanks to the pow­ers that be for re­open­ing the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um perime­ter to every­day walk­ers and jog­gers af­ter it was abrupt­ly closed off to the pub­lic. As a reg­u­lar user, like many oth­ers, I had to switch to the road­way out­side the sta­di­um and along the Na­tion­al Crick­et Cen­tre (NCC) in Bal­main, Cou­va.

While the sport­ing fa­cil­i­ty serves as a venue for foot­ball, ath­let­ics, cy­cling, and swim­ming events and a train­ing cen­tre for elite ath­letes, its sig­nif­i­cance ex­tends far be­yond the realm of pro­fes­sion­al sports.

Re­open­ing the vicin­i­ty of the sta­di­um for pub­lic ac­cess — par­tic­u­lar­ly for walk­ers and run­ners — is not mere­ly an ad­mirable idea; it is a cru­cial step in pro­mot­ing health­i­er lifestyles and en­hanc­ing the over­all well-be­ing of our com­mu­ni­ty. Such an ac­tion aligns with the tenets of the Na­tion­al Sport Pol­i­cy of T&T (2017-2027), which ex­plic­it­ly pro­motes the de­vel­op­ment of sport and sport for de­vel­op­ment.

The glob­al call to move more

In 2020, the World Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion (WHO) pub­lished re­vised guide­lines rec­om­mend­ing that in­di­vid­u­als of all ages en­gage in reg­u­lar phys­i­cal ex­er­cise as an es­sen­tial com­po­nent of main­tain­ing good health. Their mes­sage was straight­for­ward and suc­cinct: be more ac­tive, sit less. In its Glob­al Ac­tion Plan on Phys­i­cal Ac­tiv­i­ty 2018–2030, the WHO em­pha­sized the crit­i­cal need for com­mu­ni­ties to cre­ate safe, ac­ces­si­ble ar­eas—like parks, path­ways, and sports fa­cil­i­ties—that pro­mote ac­tive liv­ing.

Re­open­ing the perime­ter of the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um aligns di­rect­ly with this glob­al call to ac­tion, of­fer­ing a se­cure, well-main­tained, and in­spir­ing en­vi­ron­ment where peo­ple can walk, run, and move freely in sup­port of their health.

The Lancet 2024 Re­port: A wake-up call for T&T

A re­cent 2024 re­port by The Lancet on phys­i­cal in­ac­tiv­i­ty in T&T high­light­ed a trou­bling sit­u­a­tion. It re­vealed that 40-49% of adults are not suf­fi­cient­ly ac­tive, a trend that sig­nif­i­cant­ly leads to the in­crease in non-com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases (NCDs) such as di­a­betes, heart dis­ease, and hy­per­ten­sion. These con­di­tions place a sig­nif­i­cant bur­den on the health­care sys­tem.

Con­sis­tent phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty — in­clud­ing walk­ing for 30 min­utes dai­ly — has been shown to re­duce the risk of NCDs by up to 30%, ac­cord­ing to WHO. Pro­vid­ing the pub­lic with ac­cess to a safe space, such as the sta­di­um perime­ter, can boost their phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty and re­duce their risk of ill­ness.

En­cour­ag­ing a health­i­er fu­ture

Gov­ern­ments around the globe ac­knowl­edge the im­por­tance of this in­vest­ment: the WHO–OECD projects a re­turn of about €1.70 for each €1 in­vest­ed in pro­mot­ing phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty in Eu­rope. Like­wise, re­search by the Pan Amer­i­can Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion in­di­cates that health-pro­mo­tion ef­forts can re­sult in re­turns rang­ing from 2:1 to 4:1—and even up to 14:1 in cer­tain stud­ies con­duct­ed in the UK. (https://www.pa­ho.org/en/news/5-2-2025-high-so­cio-eco­nom­ic-ben­e­fit-pro­mot­ing-health-and-well-be­ing)

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, a world­wide eco­nom­ic as­sess­ment from RAND Eu­rope es­ti­mates that in­creas­ing pop­u­la­tion ac­tiv­i­ty to meet WHO guide­lines (150 min/week) could en­hance glob­al GDP by US $138–338 bil­lion by 2025 and as much as US $314–760 bil­lion by 2050, while al­so re­sult­ing in sig­nif­i­cant sav­ings in health­care ex­pens­es.

(https://www.rand.org/pubs/re­search_re­ports/RR4291.html?)

With the Ato Boldon perime­ter now avail­able to the pub­lic, the 400-me­tre grass sur­face at Gilbert Park, Cal­i­for­nia, will al­so be re­opened for walk­ing and run­ning.


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