Guardian: Caribbean Games to leave legacy says Hunt

Nigel Simon | 10:38 pm
Published: May 1, 2009

Gary Hunt, Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs is hoping that the inaugural Caribbean Games set for July 12 to 19 in T&T leaves a legacy. This was stated by Hunte while addressing the media at a post cabinet meeting yesterday. In his address, the Minister of Sport noted that many years ago the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committee had a vision for the elite athletes in the region to showcase their talent in the Caribbean just like the Asian Games, European Games and South American Games.
“T&T, as you know, has some of the premier Caribbean athletes and the rest of the region do likewise and it was felt that if we could produce a games that is Caribbean based it will leave a lasting legacy for the region with regards to terms of support. “We made a presentation to Caricom, Caricom accepted and T&T thereafter accepted to be host of the first Caribbean Games.”
These games will be seen as the next big event for T&T and we will be hosting 26 countries and over 1,200 athletes registered to compete in five sporting disciplines (indoor volleyball, athletics, beach volleyball, boxing, tennis). The venues to be used include Saith Park, Chaguanas (beach volleyball); Jean Pierre Complex, Mucurapo (netball); Woodbrook Youth Facility (boxing); Shaw Park Sports Complex (tennis); Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo (athletics) and University of the West Sports and Physical Educational Centre (indoor volleyball).
With regards to the state of preparations of the facilities which is costing government $35 million, Hunt said, “At the moment the infrastructural work is taking place at a pace and the last report that we had was that everything was on schedule and within budget. “We expect all the venues would be brought up to world standard and in fact all the world certified agencies with regards to the respective sporting disciplines have all certified the works that are taking place and very soon we are expecting another inspection team to be coming to T&T to keep abreast of the progress that is being made for the Caribbean Games.
“All in all we expect the Caribbean Games to be a landmark event for sport in the Caribbean which is going to be here in T&T and we believe its something that we are all going to proud off and leave a lasting legacy,” added Hunt.