Di­ane Hen­der­son was giv­en the nod to lead the T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (TTOC) for the sec­ond con­sec­u­tive term when she was re-elect­ed as pres­i­dent at the TTOC's an­nu­al gen­er­al meet­ing in the VIP Lounge at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo, Port-of-Spain on Sat­ur­day (May 24).

The in­cum­bent gath­ered 25 of the el­i­gi­ble votes to beat out the man she suc­ceed­ed Bri­an Lewis (10) and Sheri­dan Kirk (2).

She cre­at­ed his­to­ry in 2021 when be­came the first woman to lead the TTOC and is now the first to be giv­en a sec­ond reign as the head of the or­gan­i­sa­tion.

While the race for the post of pres­i­dent was a three-way con­test all of the oth­er po­si­tions were filled by proxy as there was on­ly one nom­i­nee each as Mush­taque Mo­hammed, Rowe­na Williams, and Son­ja John­son were all re­turned to the ex­ec­u­tive as vice pres­i­dents. Mo­hammed and John­son served as ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers in the last term while Williams will con­tin­ue as vice pres­i­dent.

An­nette Knott con­tin­ues as hon­orary sec­re­tary gen­er­al and Reyah Richard­son, hon­orary as­sis­tant sec­re­tary gen­er­al. Richard­son was vice pres­i­dent from 2021-2025

Dr Ter­ry Ali and Ephraim Ser­rette will see an­oth­er stint, Ali as ex­ec­u­tive mem­ber again and Ser­rette shift­ed from vice pres­i­dent to ex­ec­u­tive mem­ber along with first-timer Shawn Pouchet.

Robyn Le Blanc makes her en­try in­to the ex­ec­u­tive as trea­sur­er. For­mer trea­sur­er Cur­tis Nero is back on as Trustee.

Williams is the pres­i­dent of the T&T Cy­cling Fed­er­a­tion (TTCF) with Ser­rette, pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion of Ath­let­ics As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (NAAATT) and Pouchet, pres­i­dent of the Aquat­ics Sports As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (ASATT).

Hen­der­son was ap­pre­cia­tive of the sup­port she re­ceived to run the TTOC yet again.

"I am very pleased with the con­fi­dence the af­fil­i­ates have put in me. We can on­ly im­prove on it. The work that we have done has spo­ken for it­self. This is the three years since COVID-19. The qua­dren­ni­al was short­er. The Com­mon­wealth Youth Games which we host­ed (in 2023) was a chal­lenge. We made it hap­pen," said Hen­der­son.

The for­mer triath­lete and ul­tra-dis­tance run­ner told Guardian Me­dia Sports she in­tends to con­tin­ue to fo­cus on the "Fu­ture is Fe­male" Lega­cy.

"One of the things we will like to see is the first fe­male Olympic medal. We are work­ing to­wards that as well as con­tin­u­ing our dri­ve to­wards the ad­vance­ment of fe­male coach­es and al­so the 'Girls Got Next' fe­male Olympic medal."

Hen­der­son added that the TTOC will be im­me­di­ate­ly work­ing on up­grad­ing its new premis­es in Bel­mont.

"We have to car­ry on the lega­cy of that (new TTOC head­quar­ters) build­ing. We have the build­ing now and we have to en­sure we start the ren­o­va­tion in a time­ly man­ner," she said. "We have to make sure we have all the fund­ing to cov­er the ren­o­va­tion so we can have our Olympic mu­se­um and ex­pand on our ed­u­ca­tion or Olympic Acad­e­my ini­tia­tive."

Hen­der­son fur­ther ex­plained that: "As well as the sus­tain­abil­i­ty as­pect with the IOC (In­ter­na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tee) has very strong­ly put out there to all the NOCs (Na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tees) be­cause we have an agree­ment part­ner­ship with UN­ESCO. The 'Sports for Cli­mate Ac­tion' ini­tia­tive are very strong en­cour­age­ment for us to get on those ini­tia­tives."

TTOC ex­ec­u­tive

2025-2028

Pres­i­dent – Di­ane Hen­der­son

Im­me­di­ate past pres­i­dent - Bri­an Lewis

Vice pres­i­dents - Mush­taque Mo­hammed, Rowe­na Williams, Son­ja John­son

Hon­orary sec­re­tary gen­er­al - An­nette Knott

Hon­orary as­sis­tant sec­re­tary gen­er­al - Reyah Richard­son

Trea­sur­er - Robyn Le Blanc

Ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers - Ter­ry Ali, Shawn Pouchet, Ephraim Ser­rette

Trustee – Cur­tis Nero

Ath­lete's com­mis­sion chair - Kwanieze John