JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Hasely Crawford Stadium on stream for June 30 handover — Cudjoe

by

NIGEL SIMON
739 days ago
20230603
UdeCott chairman Noel Garcia, right, chats with Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, left, and Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Shamfa Cudjoe during the tour of the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Woodbrook, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.

UdeCott chairman Noel Garcia, right, chats with Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, left, and Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Shamfa Cudjoe during the tour of the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Woodbrook, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.

KERWIN PIERRE

Min­is­ter of Sports and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, Sham­fa Cud­joe says the sched­uled June 30 date for the com­ple­tion of the re­fur­bish­ment of the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um and its hand­ing over to the gov­ern­ment for the up­com­ing Sev­enth Com­mon­wealth Youths Games (CYG) dubbed “Trin­ba­go 2023” from Au­gust 14 to 18 is still on stream.

Min­is­ter Cud­joe was speak­ing fol­low­ing a tour of the Mu­cu­rapo Road main sports fa­cil­i­ty on Fri­day which will host the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny as well as the track and field seg­ment of the the five-day pro­gramme which will cater to ath­letes be­tween the ages of 14 to 18 com­pet­ing in sev­en sports—swim­ming, ath­let­ics, cy­cling (road race, time tri­al and track, rug­by sev­ens, triathlon, and beach vol­ley­ball for both boys and girls, while the Fast5 net­ball will be con­test­ed by girls on­ly

A con­fi­dent Cud­joe said, “We are still card­ed for the June 30th com­ple­tion date, we want to do tri­als in Ju­ly and so far not on­ly for this fa­cil­i­ty but for all oth­er fa­cil­i­ties we are all aim­ing with a com­ple­tion date of June 30.

“So far we have got­ten to about 8o per­cent com­ple­tion and once we con­tin­ue at this pace, and as a mat­ter-of-fact UDE­COTT in­tends to ramp up as it re­lates to the work­ing hours and get­ting more per­sons on board to en­sure that we make the dead­lines.”

“So I’m pleased es­pe­cial­ly with the track be­cause that was an area of con­cern for us. We brought in World Ath­let­ics and spe­cial­ists to come to see what we have here and to guide us in restor­ing the track so I’m hap­py we were able to do that.

“Th score­board came in last night (Thurs­day) and we are do­ing the works with the seats, so I feel quite pleased that the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, which is 41 years old, as old as I am is go­ing to have that full over­haul or full re­fur­bish­ment and be re­stored to its for­mer glo­ry.

Cud­joe not­ed that the work be­ing done should not on­ly be looked at get­ting the venue ready for the CYG but for sports in gen­er­al.

She said, “This is not on­ly for Com­mon­wealth Youth Games, but for schools’ sports, for foot­ball for all dif­fer­ent sport­ing dis­ci­plines, and I think the peo­ple of T&T have been wait­ing on this for quite some time. And I’m hap­py that we can de­liv­er this as a lega­cy project to peo­ple that T&T with­in the $80 mil­lion bud­get so far, so good.

With re­gards to the up­keep and main­te­nance of the fa­cil­i­ty, Cud­jo said, “If you are putting in $80 mil­lion to re­fur­bish then we have to do bet­ter as it re­lates to main­te­nance. We have a new main­te­nance sys­tem that’s be­ing de­vel­oped by the Sport Com­pa­ny of T&T (SporTT), not on­ly for the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um but for all the fa­cil­i­ties un­der the Min­istry of Sport and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment watch. So, we ex­pect new en­er­gy, a new way of man­ag­ing our fa­cil­i­ties and main­tain­ing our fa­cil­i­ties, as soon as that plan is com­plet­ed and im­ple­ment­ed.

In terms of the lega­cy be­ing cre­at­ed, Cud­joe said, “I think not on­ly for ath­let­ics, but al­so for foot­ball, and the dif­fer­ent sport­ing dis­ci­plines that use the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um right now.

|You have sport­ing groups util­is­ing oth­er fa­cil­i­ties, “Of course, the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um is the main for ath­let­ics, but we al­so have work go­ing on at the Dwight Yorke Sta­di­um and ac­tiv­i­ties tak­ing place at Dwight Yorke Sta­di­um.

“This year we’ll al­so look­ing at start­ing re­fur­bish­ment works at Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um (Mal­abar), and Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um (Mara­bel­la).

“We are start­ing with the lights be­cause we feel like that’s the most ur­gent part of the re­fur­bish­ment to be done and we ramp up you know fix­ing these fa­cil­i­ties be­cause we want not on­ly Hase­ly Craw­ford to be the place for ath­let­ics.

‘As we go out in­to schools to come Sep­tem­ber, we want them to have ac­cess to more fa­cil­i­ties and bet­ter tracks so that they can fa­cil­i­tate and host their school games. So, we al­so look for­ward to do­ing work at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um al­so. So, we’re re­fur­bish­ing what we have for ma­jor sport­ing ac­tiv­i­ties. But al­so, to ramp up com­mu­ni­ty sports and uti­lize sports as a de­vel­op­ment tool for com­mu­ni­ties and for schools.

Asked if she had any feed­back from Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, Cud­joe said, “So far, so good. He wants to make sure that we em­ploy the right strate­gies so that we can de­liv­er on time not on­ly for the CYG but to en­sure that af­ter hav­ing the tri­als, if there are any changes to be made that it could be done, so I think that he’s pleased by what he has seen to­day.

Com­ment­ing on the state of the Jean Pierre Com­plex, Cud­joe said, “The Jean Pierre Com­plex wasn’t a part of the re­fur­bish­ment for this fis­cal year. We want­ed to fo­cus on the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um. Of course, we’re look­ing at do­ing some face-lift­ing at the Jean Pierre Com­plex in time for the games and then for the next fis­cal year go in­to the full works over at the Jean Pierre Com­plex be­cause it’s about time that we re­store the Jean Pierre Com­plex to its for­mer glo­ry and bring it up to the in­ter­na­tion­al stan­dard, es­pe­cial­ly to sup­port or net­ballers who have been cry­ing out for the re­fur­bish­ment. So we’re do­ing that work for the new fis­cal year, I’m not go­ing to promise you that for this fis­cal that would not be true, stat­ed Cud­joe.

For the CYG which is ex­pect­ed to in­volve more than 70 coun­tries, some 5,000 ho­tel room nights across six ho­tels in T&T in­clud­ing the Hy­att Re­gency Trinidad, Radis­son, Cara Ho­tels, Mag­dale­na Grand Beach and Golf Re­sort, Mt. Irvine Bay Re­sort and Com­fort Inn and Suites are al­so ex­pect­ed to be utilised.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored