Callender: Trinidad and Tobago athletes lacked quality preparation

EMMANUEL CALLENDER, a two-time Olympic 4x100-metre medallist, believes local-based Trinidad and Tobago track and field athletes were not afforded the opportunity to have quality preparation before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as access to training facilities and meets were scarce.

“Special privileges could have been made towards the athletes back at home so that they can better prepare themselves for the Olympic Games,” Callender told Newsday in an interview during the Olympics. Callender won gold with the TT men's 4x100m team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and silver at the 2012 London Games.

TT ended the 2020 Tokyo Olympics without a medal. It was the first time TT ended an Olympic Games without a medal since the 1992 Barcelona Games.

In the three-month period leading up to the Olympics TT experienced a rise in covid19 cases between May and July.

Since March 2020, national athletes have only been allowed to train periodically at facilities because of the pandemic.

Government did allow the National Association of Athletics Administrations to host two meets, on June 21 and 27, to give local-based athletes a final chance of qualifying for the Olympics before the June 29 deadline.

A number of TT athletes based overseas, including Jereem Richards and Keshorn Walcott, did have a hectic season prior to the Olympics.

Walcott competed throughout Europe and Richards used a number of meets in the US to prepare.

In June, the NAAA normally holds the National Championships at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo which serves as an Olympic qualification meet in an Olympic year.

The meet never ran off because of the pandemic.

In Jamaica, where Callender is based, sport, including football, has resumed over the past few months.

It must be noted that in May and June, Jamaica were able to control the spread of covid19 compared to higher numbers in TT.

The Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association National Senior and Junior Championships were held from June 24 to 27 featuring several of Jamaica’s elite athletes.

Elaine Thompson-Herah, who won three gold medals in Tokyo, was among those who competed.

Prior to the Jamaica National Championships, roughly seven meets were held in Jamaica for senior track and field athletes.

Callender said more should have been done to keep the local-based TT athletes active.

“From what I have been seeing there, there was no place to train in TT for most athletes. They should have put something in place knowing that Olympic Games were coming up for athletes so they would have been better equipped to deal with the stress leading up to the Olympic Games. That’s what I think.”

Callender, who has been based in Jamaica for years, said, “There were athletes like Jonathan Farinha and countless others who were complaining on social media about not being able to train and to compete where as in other countries, like Jamaica, they have been having meets where I am currently. I was also in California in the US (where) we had more access to facilities regardless of what was going on.”

TT athletes voiced their thoughts about what they had to endure.

Richards, who finished eighth in the men’s 200m final in Tokyo, said on Instagram following the race, “From running in the road and struggling to find somewhere to train all 2020 to making an Olympic finals and finish eighth fastest in the world in 2021. Ain’t God Great!!!”

In 2019, the last full year of local track and field, events such as Southern Games, Tobago Falcon Games, Zenith Relays and Abilene Wildcats Track Classic were held. None of those events were held in 2020 or 2021.

In 2021, six track and field series meets between February and April were held by NAAA in conjunction with National Gas Company. Those meets, however, were more geared towards age group athletes.