Fire on the Tracks at D/Yorke Stadium

FOR the first time in the competition’s 40-year history, the TT Secondary Schools Track and Field Association (TTSSTFA) will be staging its 2020 Championships in Tobago.

This year’s event will be held at the Dwight Yorke Stadium, Bacolet on March 11 and 12.

At Tuesday’s launch, at the Ministry of Education office in Port of Spain, Education Minister Anthony Garcia said, “It is an occasion where our secondary school students will have an opportunity of displaying their athletic prowess. What is encouraging is the fact that this track and field meeting will be held in Tobago. It has been a while since such an event has been held in Tobago.”

According to Garcia, “Two things will be of benefit to our students. The students in Tobago will have an opportunity of competing on their own turf. They will be spared some of the difficulties and challenges that they usually undergo in arriving into Trinidad, on occasions like these. The second benefit is over 90 schools will be participating in this exercise. More than 1,000 students will be going (from Trinidad) to showcase their skills and talents.”

Competitors from 99 schools (91 from Trinidad and eight from Tobago) will feature in the Under-13, Under-15, Under-17 and Over-17 categories at the two-day event, which has the theme “Fire on the Tracks”.

The athletes were selected from the eight district championships, which took place from January 15 to February 18.

TTSSTFA president Joseph Brewster said, “Track and field in Tobago have been on the rise for the past couple of years. This time, schools like Bishop’s and Scarborough (Secondary are) vying to overturn the champions Toco.”

Brewster continued, “There are many students who have not gone to Tobago. We look forward to keen competition for the two days, we look forward to the public coming out. None of this could not have been possible without the support of the Ministry of Education, the Tobago House of Assembly, the Ministry of Sport, the NAAA and our many official sponsors – NGC, Bmobile, Blue Waters (and) SM Jaleel.”

Asked about the state of readiness at the Dwight Yorke Stadium, Brewster replied, “(the stadium) doesn’t have any lights right now, so our competition doesn’t finish in the night.

In terms of our site visits, we are ready. There are some areas that may be out of bounds, but it wouldn’t affect us.”

The 2020 Carifta Track and Field Championships will take place, over the Easter weekend (April 11-13), in Bermuda.

Brewster said, “We have a number of athletes who are on the fringe of making the Carifta standard. There are a number of athletes who have already done that. It calls for keen, strong competition because this comes just a few days after the Carifta trials (carded for this weekend).

“It’s actually putting on show the athletes who have made the standards and vying to go to Carifta.”