T&T’s top in­ter­na­tion­al hock­ey um­pire Ayan­na Mc­Clean was ho­n­oured af­ter she took charge of her 100th in­ter­na­tion­al, the top Asian ri­val­ry that in­volved Chi­na vs Japan (a re­peat of my sec­ond match at the Olympics) in which Japan won 3-2 at the Women's Asian Cham­pi­onship Tro­phy Tour­na­ment in Dong­hae, South Ko­rea on Mon­day.

By achiev­ing the feat, Mc­Clean, a grad­u­ate of South East Port-of-Spain was award­ed the Fed­er­a­tion of In­ter­na­tion­al Hock­ey (FIH) Gold­en Whis­tle to be­come the 50th woman to ever re­ceive the award and is one of few­er than 100 um­pires who have done so in the life­time of the sport.

Mc­Clean, a mem­ber of the lo­cal club Ven­tures, is al­so the first um­pire from the Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean (CAC) re­gion and about the 12th um­pire in the Pan Am re­gion to achieve the feat.

Since her Olympic Games cam­paign where she did match-ups that fea­tured Ar­genti­na and Japan, Nether­lands and South Africa, Ar­genti­na vs Spain, and the bat­tle of the Asian gi­ants Japan and Chi­na, which Chi­na won 4-3, the Bel­mont na­tive has been qui­et­ly fly­ing the T&T flag at many tour­na­ments in­clud­ing the fi­nals of the NCAA Di­vi­sion 1 in the USA.

The daugh­ter of an­oth­er for­mer T&T in­ter­na­tion­al hock­ey um­pire Cher­ill Mc­Clean said: "You have to start some­thing to ac­com­plish some­thing. To­tal­ly ho­n­oured to have joined a spe­cial group of elite, world-class um­pires that have been award­ed a Gold­en Whis­tle af­ter um­pir­ing 100 se­nior in­ter­na­tion­al match­es. Be­ing the first in the Cen­tral Amer­i­can & Caribbean re­gion, I hope to in­spire ath­letes, of­fi­cials, fe­males and many oth­ers to be­gin a new jour­ney and see where it takes you. Thank you to every­one who has sup­port­ed me through and con­tin­ue to cheer me on dur­ing this jour­ney."