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Trinidad and Tobago’s track and field stakeholders are pleading with the private and public sector to support the local sport, so as to help young athletes reach their true potential.
On 28 – 29 June, the NGC NAAATT Junior Championships, which also has significant financial support from Republic Bank, was staged at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain and drew over 800 young athletes from across Trinidad and Tobago.
Photo: Johann Corneille/ Wired868.
With selections on the line for upcoming regional competitions as well as university scouting opportunities, the meet fulfilled its technical purpose.
Yet, beyond the action on the track, the resounding message from officials, coaches and athletes is that Trinidad and Tobago’s track and field system is under-resourced, and continued progress requires urgent investment in both funding and training infrastructure.
Paul Voisin, first vice-president of the NAAATT and chairman of the meet, acknowledged the strong turnout and praised the coaches for managing across such a wide age range.
Photo: Johann Corneille/ Wired868.
Still, he was candid about the financial strain many clubs face.
“To get 800 athletes from all over Trinidad and Tobago is a success,” Voisin told Wired868, “but for teams coming from Tobago, the cost is heavy, and most of those clubs are unsponsored.”
Voisin highlighted that much of the sport is run by unpaid volunteers and lamented the lack of institutional support for clubs.
“We do not have the equipment for the schools, and we still compare ourselves to the [best in the] world,” he said. “Half these children do not have sneakers to run.”
Voisin noted that while the Ministry of Sport offers developmental support, there is little to no direct funding for clubs, nor adequate planning for athlete training when facilities are under repair.
Photo: Johann Corneille/ Wired868.
“Even after Carifta, we did not have a stadium to train,” he said. “There was no alternate venue offered.”
He called for club subventions to cover equipment and operational needs, and questioned the practice of evaluating success only by medal count.
“I don’t count medals,” he said. “I look at what you can invest.”
Despite limited resources and unpredictable weather, the Junior Championships produced several strong performances.
Photo: Johann Corneille/ Wired868.
Fifteen-year-old Chelsea Charles of Point Fortin New Jets clocked an impressive 14.89 seconds in the Under-17 100m hurdles—despite only two months of formal training and no access to a track in the weeks prior.
Her coach, Eric McCree, explained that his team was forced to train on public roads due to flooding.
“We did fairly well given the conditions,” he said.
Photo: Johann Corneille/ Wired868.
The New Jets also picked up silver medals in the Under-20 Girls 200m, 400m, and Javelin events, as well as bronze in the Pole Vault.
“We have no equipment for that,” McCree noted. “It’s horrible for me, but I’ve had to improvise all along the way.”
Kelvin Nancoo, head coach of Cougars Track and Field, praised his team’s overall showing, especially in the Under-15 and Under-17 divisions. Jonas Gaitan stood out with a personal best of 21.07 seconds in the 200m.
Photo: Johann Corneille/ Wired868.
“He beat everybody but didn’t win the final because he felt something, and I wouldn’t take that chance,” said Nancoo.
He expressed disappointment that his top Under-20 sprinter, Dylan Woodruffe, finished outside the top two, which he attributed to fatigue from recent competitions.
Like others, Nancoo called for greater investment in school-level sports and criticized the practice of clubs recruiting athletes away from smaller programs.
Photo: Johann Corneille/ Wired868.
“We can’t just sit and hope things align. Give the child the opportunity to be the best they can be,” he said.
Wendell Williams of Jumpers Inc was equally vocal about the need for better planning and standards.
“We need to treat this as a championship, not a development meet,” he said.
Photo: Johann Corneille/ Wired868.
Williams’ athletes turned in several strong performances: national triple jump record holder Kenisha Shelbourne registered a personal best of 5.83m in the Long Jump, finishing second to US-based athlete Janae DeGannes. Zane Martin also earned silver in the triple jump with a personal best of 11m.
“Everyone who competed from our training group did well,” Williams said.
Shelbourne herself was measured in her self-assessment.
Photo: Johann Corneille/ Wired868.
“I was not too pleased with my performance, but this year was a great year for me,” she said. “For Carifta, the crowd really pushed me and gave me motivation.”
Her Jumpers Inc teammate, Franca Worrell, also drew praise from coaches for her composure under pressure. Meanwhile, 17-year-old Tyrique Vincent of Concorde Athletic Club secured personal bests in both the long jump and pole vault.
“The competition was stiff,” he said, “but something about your home crowd is special.”
Photo: Johann Corneille/ Wired868.
Dana Charles, a 16-year-old sprinter with Point Fortin New Jets, said the experience revealed her potential.
“My performance meant that I could do better than I thought I could,” she said, after running strong races in the 100m and 200m without proper training facilities.
Her goal now is to make the Carifta tryouts.
Event Committee chairman Dexter Voisin commended the efforts of both athletes and meet officials, noting that the weather posed a significant challenge.
Photo: Johann Corneille/ Wired868.
He confirmed that the Championships hosted a number of Carifta medallists and saw participation from UK and US-based athletes such as Shane West, who competed in the 100m and 400m hurdles.
“We did not have enough officials to manage the number of athletes at times, but I think it was a success,” he said. “This is about our juniors showcasing their talent.”
Voisin also acknowledged that without ticket sales and with fluctuating crowd sizes—partly due to heavy rains—the meet continues to depend heavily on corporate support.
Photo: Johann Corneille/ Wired868.
Sponsors for this year’s Championships included Republic Bank, NGC, Puma (which outfits the national team), and Blue Waters.
“We are appreciative of all our sponsors for greatly assisting us with the financials,” he said.
The Championships underscored the depth of talent in local athletics but also highlighted a familiar tension. Strong performances continue to emerge across Trinidad and Tobago. But almost every coach and official agreed that talent alone is not enough.
Photo: Johann Corneille/ Wired868.
To sustain growth and to develop athletes ready for the world stage, the sport requires consistent financial support, access to adequate training venues, and a long-term strategy that treats junior athletics not just as a development tool—but as a serious, competitive system worth investing in.
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Joshua Forte is an intern, who studied literature at St Mary’s College where he discovered a love for writing (and a talent for arguing about sports in essays). A self-proclaimed sports junkie, Joshua believes in serving God, speaking his truth, and never turning off a match early.
For decades, there have been ongoing debates about the need for increased funding in our sports ecosystem, yet these discussions have produced few tangible results. One recurring issue is the apparent lack of evidence that sporting organizations are making significant efforts to achieve greater self-reliance. Addressing this gap could be key to fostering sustainable growth and a more self-sustaining ecosystem.
Like with most amateur sport, separating the funding of different phases of the ecosystem each has different challenges:
At the early youth recruitment phase, the issue is: more athletes = more coaches needed. Who’s paying these coaches? Recruitment at age 7 puts the burden of paying coaches onto the parents—who are usually thrilled that their kids have something meaningful to do on evenings. Track club fees can run to as much as TTD\$3000 a year, and uniforms, shoes, spikes, and other gear is an additional couple grand. Then there are competition fees…which can add a couple hundred for a Trini-based kid, but escalate to thousands for a Tobago kid who has to travel with their family to compete.
Further up, there’s the pre-adolescent youth from 9–13 who also has more training sessions, more S\&C training (and here, that’s done outside of the track club and factors an additional expense).
Then the youth-elite level in the teenage years, where the payoff is the hope of a scholarship of some sort…
Then POOF…we lose that athlete to their college and hardly ever see them compete here at home ever again.
The business model is broken—the streaming services are often unpaid and underfunded. The photographers routinely get their images lifted and stolen from the online platforms…hidden behind “private” accounts that refuse to even tag a kneegrow\….\[breathe bro…breathe…]
So there is very little commercial value to even sponsoring the most successful clubs or events.
The cost of putting on a proper track meet—without prize money—is around USD\$10,000. Promoters skimp on this and hope that photographers and digital content creators “come tru” and do ah ting, moreso than using paid professional services to fuel their brand equity development. Even when sponsors see their brand out there, there is usually so much red tape inside those orgs that they don’t even share the content. Half million followers…3 posts with 10 likes…for quarter million dollars worth of sponsorship? The maths ain’t “mathsin”…so they scale back.
The senior/professional elite class of athletes??
The few that we have are operating on lower-tier contracts that are performance-based with minimum stipends that often depreciate over time. The payout comes when they win. But what if they don’t win? What happens then?
The sponsorship by global brands in the shoe, clothing, and equipment spaces have monopolies over the sport, and the entry point for them is being able to win a global event in your first or second year as a pro. If you don’t win…salt for you jeddie.
At the NSO level, the medal bonuses are split between association and athlete, and the athletes always feel that their cut is never gonna be enough to cover expenses. On the NSO side, they have to manage increasing cost burdens against a decreasing audience appeal of longer meets. It costs to even put on the lights at HCS, so daytime vs nighttime meets—when the theory is that fans prefer to come out after the sun goes down—is a genuine debate that affects profitability for the NSO. Moot when nobody is coming out anyway, so that’s a genuine issue.
The crowd on Saturday at Open Champs in 2012, just before the London Olympics, was estimated at 5,500 patrons, overflowing the covered stands. One OLY cycle later, the Open Champs before Rio, the crowd dropped a bit, but still could be considered a good turnout. But look at what happened post-COVID for Tokyo and Paris Olympics. HCS was a ghost town, with less than 1,500 paying patrons, if you exclude the athletes and club officials.
We saw the same thing at Carifta 2025. Poor turnout for both athletics and swimming. And these are the top Olympic sports by participation and medal count. Doh even ask about track cycling. Nico was the World Record holder for three and a half years…how many people saw him ride in person?
Relaying a synthetic athletic track can cost anywhere from USD$350,000 to a million a pop. That’s a cool TTD$30m easy to fix all the ones that are out of commission at the moment.
We got issues…ain’t just the shoes…
Well stated!
Wasn’t this event dominated by Tobago athletes? And not a mention of them despite the great disadvantage and enormous expense of having to travel from Tobago. Tells you all you need to know!