Olympic stars share knowledge at Atlantic camp

Olympic gold medallist Keshorn Walcott (L) and TT sprinter Khalifa St Fort,2nd from right, spend time with primary school athletes, on Sunday, at the Atlantic Track and Field Development camp,held at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Centre of Excellence,Macoya. - ANGELO_MARCELLE
Olympic gold medallist Keshorn Walcott (L) and TT sprinter Khalifa St Fort,2nd from right, spend time with primary school athletes, on Sunday, at the Atlantic Track and Field Development camp,held at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Centre of Excellence,Macoya. - ANGELO_MARCELLE

OVER 80 primary school athletes participated in the fifth annual Atlantic Track and Field Development Camp held over the weekend, at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Macoya. Present at the camp to facilitate the activities were Olympic athletes and Atlantic Sports ambassadors Richard Thompson, Keshorn Walcott, Khalifa St Fort and Jereem Richards.

Commenting on the two-day camp, Richard “Torpedo” Thompson said, “ It has been a great experience for me and the other ambassadors... being a part of this programme is truly an honour when you think of our responsibilities not only from the corporate end but as individuals of TT. It is important that we fulfil the responsibility of developing those who are next in line. Most importantly for us, the kids had fun and they learnt a lot in the process.

“We tried to diversify the camp by incorporating the field events because we know the go-to for many of the young talent in TT is to go in the streets or in school and run races against one another but given the success of Keshorn in 2012, we’ve seen that diversify talent. Hopefully, we can branch out further with long jump and triple jump.”

Olympic track star Jereem Richards (L) and sprinter Khalifa St Fort help a youngster during the Atlantic Track and Field Development camp, at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Centre of Excellence, Macoya, on Sunday. - ANGELO_MARCELLE

Atlantic communications officer Dzika Job said, “We believe that the primary school age group makes the most sense to catalyse youth development in sport; we are also involved in football, cricket, swimming and multi-sport series. This is us giving the children a chance to learn and interact with some of the best athletes TT has ever produced.

We worked with the Primary School Track & Field Association to select the top student of each division throughout the TT.”

Atlantic Media communications officer Billson Hainsley commented on the planning and execution of the camp. “We had great help from the sports ambassadors they are very committed to the programme, Richard and the other ambassadors planned it and decided how much attention each child gets. So, it was really easy because of the partnership between Atlantic and the ambassadors.”

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