So 2022 is pretty much over, but how do you feel? Did you and your family make progress, or was it a case of trying to hold your ground?
In sports, this was always going to be a ‘hold the ground’ kind of year. Covid-19 robbed athletes of a lot of time for more than two years. The announcement in January by Sports Minister Shamfa Cudjoe that there would be a return to the game was good news. But it also presented a challenge to both national sports bodies and their members.
With the final few days of December ticking by, it’s fair to say that overall, domestic sport will be happy to see 2022 come to an end.
I’m not sure many disciplines can say their season was a winner. From football to cricket, to hockey to track and field, both junior and senior teams have competed in regional competitions.
Much of their struggles can be attributed to their general inactivity since 2019. But with all of Trinidad and Tobago’s competitors also living through Covid-19, the pandemic alone cannot account for much of their better results. low. The efficacy of the team’s preparation must be questioned. The leaders on all those boards need to be asked some serious questions.
I haven’t heard many credible answers this year. But the purpose of these words today is not to deal with that. I won’t try to identify the sporting losers for 2022. Rather, there were a number of individuals who still managed to stand out.
In no particular order then, here are some people who did the business this year.
Nicholas Paul finished 2022 injured, but this was a year where he advanced his game and reputation as a world-class cyclist.
Nico’s performance at the Nations Cup in Colombia, beating the seemingly unbeatable Dutch Olympic and world champion Harrie Lavreysen in the sprint straight, while also winning the keir, an event that also included Lavreysen and the other three best. rider ranked in the event, was impressive.
He rode with great confidence, so the gold silver and bronze he later took at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham were no surprise.
Paul credited the work he put in training after his disappointments at the Tokyo Olympics last year for clearly improving in 2022. He is an example many of his fellow TTO athletes should emulate. There can be no real progress unless you do meaningful and hard work. Jereem Richards and Dylan Carter taught similar lessons by the way they went about their work.
A world indoor title in the 400m and a gold record and championship in the 200m at the Commonwealth Games made this the best year of results for “The Dream”.
Appreciating the void left both on and off the track by the tragic death of Deon Lendore, Richards stepped up his game, using his friend’s death as true motivation. He is now the male track manager. And while he may not currently be considered the favorite when the world’s best come together for a 200m event, Jereem has shown himself to be a fighter and a fine athlete in his own right, one who can still improve.
Great fighter and athlete with potential to become even better is also a fitting description for Carter.
In the pool, there were peaks and valleys, the highlight being his World Cup all-star performance in the short course that earned him nine gold medals and plenty of money. It was an impressive response to those who questioned his quality after he failed to pick up a medal at the Commonwealth Games.
Reading his words about the “washed up” conversation he had to endure here at home after Birmingham, you can feel his hurt. But his response at the World Cup and his bronze medal in the 50m freestyle at the world short course, where he had not lived up to his expectations before that race, were important. They proved that like George Bovell before him, Carter is tough. And at 26, he has time and a fair chance to take on Bovell and set up an Olympic podium.
Those three individuals really stood out and should be included in all Sportsman of the Year discussions to come. But there were also two groups that deserve to be mentioned here. One is a team, the Fatima College Premier Division High School football team. The last year before the pandemic, they were playing in the Championship Division. They had to wait until 2022 to enjoy their return to the top flight, but they made the most of it. Along with St. Benedict’s College, the Fatima boys dominated the league and knockout competitions. They took the North Zone and national InterCol titles as a testament to their quality.
In a season where most teams looked like they needed the year just to find their feet, Fatima as a school looked ready to go. They also dominated most other age groups. Not all other schools had the financial resources that Fatima possessed. But former Kick Squad hero Hutson Charles, who coached the senior squad and the other coaches and school staff involved, deserve a lot of credit for the level of planning and organization that clearly went into preparing for this season. They provided a model that others should seek to follow next time.
Finally, there was the Ascension group. If it wasn’t for the money they put into not only their tournament but all the zonal competitions, there might not have been any senior football played this year. As I type, there is still no firm plan for a national competition. The Normalization Committee (NC) appears to have made some progress in trying to resolve the Football Association’s debt problem. I say it carefully, preferring to hear that all creditors have received the money previously promised.
However, NC can’t get high marks for the fact that the game is going down the field. Ascension banker Richard Ferguson may have his eyes on the TTFA leadership, but his group filled a need for many here still looking to pursue a career in football.
Some players have lost out on the game due to the dire need to make ends meet during Covid. So that others do not become further victims, KK and other stakeholders should make a national competition a reality sooner rather than later. It’s about time football here got back on the winner’s row.
