For­mer T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee (T&TOC) Pres­i­dent Bri­an Lewis is fan­cied to re­turn to the po­si­tion when he goes up against in­cum­bent Di­ane Hen­der­son and for­mer track ath­lete Sher­ri­dan Kirk at the T&TOC’s 76th An­nu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing (AGM) at the VIP Lounge, Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo on Sat­ur­day from 4 pm.

Lewis joined the T&TOC in 1997 and served as pres­i­dent from 2013 to 2022. He is a for­mer pres­i­dent of the Caribbean As­so­ci­a­tion of Na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tees (CANOC), which he now serves as gen­er­al sec­re­tary.

He has more than 35 years’ ex­pe­ri­ence in sports lead­er­ship and has es­tab­lished a rep­u­ta­tion as a cre­ative and in­sight­ful thought leader.

Pri­or to as­sum­ing the pres­i­den­cy of the TTOC, Lewis served on sev­er­al com­mit­tees, in­clud­ing mar­ket­ing and fi­nance, and worked hard to se­cure spon­sor­ship op­por­tu­ni­ties. A strong ad­vo­cate for di­ver­si­ty and gen­der equal­i­ty, the TTOC launched the “Fu­ture is Fe­male” pro­gramme un­der his lead­er­ship, which cham­pi­ons and ad­vo­cates for gen­der equal­i­ty at all lev­els of Olympic and Com­mon­wealth sport in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

A St James res­i­dent and for­mer Fa­ti­ma Col­lege and St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege stu­dent, Lewis holds an Ex­ec­u­tive Mas­ter’s de­gree in Sports Or­gan­i­sa­tion Man­age­ment (MEM­OS) and opt­ed to va­cate the role of T&TOC boss in 2022.

And on April 30, 2022, Hen­der­son, an ex­pe­ri­enced sports ad­min­is­tra­tor, be­came the first fe­male and the 11th pres­i­dent of the T&TOC at the his­toric first vir­tu­al elec­tion at their 75th An­nu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing (AGM).

Back then, Hen­der­son won by a mar­gin of 24 votes to 10 over the oth­er con­tender, Rowe­na Williams, with 70 per cent of the vote, and her ap­point­ment was greet­ed by Lewis, who was quot­ed as say­ing, “He has left the T&TOC in ca­pa­ble hands, and he had no re­grets about leav­ing the pres­i­den­cy.”

Hen­der­son has con­tributed sig­nif­i­cant­ly to sports gov­er­nance, ath­lete wel­fare, strate­gic plan­ning and sports me­di­a­tion. As Chair of the Women In Sport Com­mis­sion, she has been a key pro­po­nent for the con­tin­ued push for ed­u­ca­tion in sport in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Hen­der­son has a demon­strat­ed his­to­ry of work­ing in sports man­age­ment, be­ing the first fe­male on the ex­ec­u­tive board of the NAAA, leav­ing a line of fe­male ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers who con­tributed to its progress, and has been an in­te­gral mem­ber and very in­stru­men­tal in sev­er­al as­pects of de­vel­op­ment at the TTOC.

The oth­er per­son vy­ing for the role of pres­i­dent is Sher­ri­dan Kirk, of To­ba­go, a for­mer na­tion­al 400m and 800m record hold­er.

The po­si­tion of vice pres­i­dent will al­so be a three-per­son race with for­mer T&T Vol­ley­ball Fed­er­a­tion Pres­i­dent Mush­taque Mo­hammed, a long-serv­ing mem­ber of the T&T, Rowe­na Williams, the T&T Cy­cling Fed­er­a­tion boss, and T&T Chess As­so­ci­a­tion Pres­i­dent Son­ja John­son, the three nom­i­nees.

The oth­er po­si­tions up for se­lec­tion will be the three ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers from the quar­tet of Dr Ter­ry Ali, Karen Arau­jo, Shawn Pouchet and Ephraim Ser­rette.

The po­si­tions of Ho­n­ourary Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al (An­nette Knott), Ho­n­ourary As­sis­tant Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al (Reyah Richard­son) and Trea­sur­er (Robyn Le Blanc) are all but filled af­ter the trio were the lone nom­i­nees for their roles.