Returning Calypso Girls skipper Joelisa Cooper emphasised the need for support and structure in the local game in the wake of their adventure at the Netball World Cup.
The Trinidad and Tobago netball team finished ninth in Sydney. However, there is a reasonable feeling in hindsight from various camps that the team was good enough to finish even higher.
Before the netballers had left for Sydney on August 1, Cooper told the Express that they had been training consistently in the two years leading up to the World Cup. None of the players were being paid for their involvement in the national set up, as there is no professional national league here.

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The Trinidad and Tobago cyclists have been given their much-need life line according to president of the Trinidad and Tobago Cycling Federation (TTCF) Robert Farrier yesterday. The team had run into a serious rut when last week they discovered that they would not be receiving funding for their air fare for the Pan American Cycling Championships next month in Santiago, Chile.
Initially, the Ministry of Sport (MoS) told the TTCF that they were unable to fund the cyclists for the championships in Chile in three weeks' time, citing exhausted funds as the cause.
The competition in Chile, crucial for the athletes because it is a UCI-sanctioned event, which will help them accumulate points towards their overall world ranking, which will determine participation at next year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee  (TTOC ) extends congratulations to Sebastian Coe on his election as IAAF President.
Mr Coe's experience and proven track record in sport,business , politics and his vision and purpose for the role of sport,in particular track and field will give him the required insight and perspective to lead the IAAF at this juncture in its history.

Sebastian Coe was today elected the new President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), beating his only rival Sergey Bubka, here today.

Britain's double Olympic 1500 metres champion polled 115 votes to 92 for Bubka, Ukraine's former world record holder for the pole vault, at the IAAF Congress.

Coe, the former chairman of London 2012, will succeed 82-year-old Senegalese Lamine Diack, who is stepping down from the role after 16 years, at the conclusion of the IAAF World Championships, due to start in the Chinese capital on Saturday (August 22).

He is also expected now to be appointed as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), a role he is likely to take up just before next year's Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Bubka will serve as Coe's senior vice-president after receiving 187 votes in the election that followed.

Thirty-four years to the day since he set a world record for the mile in Zürich, Coe claimed his election was the "second most momentous moment in my life" behind the birth of his children.

"These words are not in any way rehearsed, first I would like to thank Sergey for a thoroughly good and long campaign," Coe added.

"I think it has been in the best traditions of everything we both believe, we have fought according to sound judgement throughout.

"I'd like to thank President Diack for the many personal kindnesses both public and private and to you, the Member Federations, for placing your trust in me today."

Bubka was magnanimous in defeat.

"I know that athletics in the future will grow, and become stronger and stronger," he said after congratulating Coe.

The election of 58-year-old Coe came at the end of a marathon campaign during which he claimed to have travelled 700,000 kilometres - the equivalent of four times around the world - and met a representative from all 214 countries who are a member of the IAAF.

"There is no task in my life for which I have been better prepared," Coe told the IAAF Congress during a five-minute presentation before the vote.

"No job I have ever wanted to do more nor would be more committed to.

"With confidence, with affection, my friends I place myself in your hands.

"If you place your trust in me today, I will not let you down."

A key moment in Coe's victory is widely believed to have been a controversial "declaration of war" speech following allegations by German broadcaster ARD/WDR and the Sunday Times that claimed an "extraordinary extent of cheating" by athletes after they obtained blood test data from 5,000 athletes between 2001 and 2012.

Widely condemned in the media for his comments, Coe's staunch defence of the sport appeared to go down well with delegates, however.

"As you have seen in recent weeks I will always be in your corner," he told them during his presentation.

"Your fight is my fight."

Setting up an independent anti-doping agency was among the most important points in Coe's manifesto.

He only alluded to the new organisation in his address to Congress in the loosest of terms, though.

"Committing to a sport based on a strong foundation and the twin principles of trust and integrity," was one of his promises he told them.

"We could not have survived for three weeks let alone 33 centuries if we were based on anything other than that."

Coe is only the sixth President in the 103-year history of the IAAF.

He is the second Briton to hold the role, following the Marquess of Exeter, better known as Lord Burghley, who held the position between 1946 and 1976.

Like Coe, he was an Olympic gold medallist, winning the 400m hurdles at Amsterdam 1928; Like Coe, he was organiser of the Olympic Games in London, in 1948; and, like Coe, he was chairman of the British Olympic Association.

"We have a man who has devoted his life to the sport." said Diack of Coe.

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Yesterday August 15th 2015, Trinidad and Tobago’s top Beach Volleyball pair of Daneil Williams and Fabien Whitfield finished 2nd at the California Beach Volleyball Tournament played at Ocean Beach in San Diego USA.

The T&T pair popularly known as the “Toco Boys” was ranked last in the tournament of thirty four (34) teams, placing them in a group with the top ranked team. Most of the teams in the tournament were from the USA. T&T was able to win group 1 an advance directly to the quarter finals. They also won the Quarter Finals and the Semi Finals. T&T lost in the finals to the National Team of Mexico that recently won gold at the Pan American Games.

Mexico was also the team to knock T&T out of the Pan Am games where the Toco Boys placed a credible ninth.
The T&T duo has been on tour since May training on Dogg Beach, California. They participated on the NORCECA Tour legs Punta Cana, Dominican Republic and North Bay Canada. They also participated on the World Tour, St. Petersburg Leg and in the Pan American Games in Toronto Canada. The team is in preparation for a run at the 2016 Olympics qualification. They won the first leg of the process back in May at Saith Park in front of a jubilant home crowd.

The TTVF thanks the Minister of Sport the Honourable Mr. Brent Sancho for his support towards keeping the team on tour. We would also like to thank Mr. Anthony Creed and the Sports Company, Mr. Brian Lewis and the TTOC for its contribution to the process. The Team would continue its preparation heading into the second round of the Olympic Qualification process.

The team’s upcoming activities:
1) Another Open California Tournament - August
2) World Tour – Long Beach Leg - August
3) NORCECA Tour – Veracruz Cuba - August
4) NORCECA Tour – Florida USA - September
5) Return home for a major Beach Volleyball Launch. – September
6) Olympic Qualification 2nd Round Jamaica – September

The TTVF would like the team to be given Elite Athlete Funding consideration. The TTVF would also like the Government to consider allocating a percentage of the NLCB Profits to the SPORTT Company to distribute to deserving sporting organisations as is the practice in the UK, Jamaica and Barbados.

Derron Douglas emerged winner of the World Junior Table Tennis Circuit which took place in Guatemala from August 6-9, 2015. He was successful despite numerous obstacles which he and his teammates faced during the tournament. 

Despite the late arrival of the team in Guatemala City, twelve-year old Douglas defied the odds to stunned table tennis world with his mature level of play as he battled against his more experienced opponents at this level. In the group stage he blazed pass Oscar Davidson of Panama 11-4, 12-10, 11-6. 

Douglas went under to Diego De La Cruz of Guatemala 11-9, 12-10, 11-9 but bounce back in his third group stage match to defeat Wilfred Chicas also of Guatemala 11-7, 4-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-6. In the quarter-finals stage Douglas got pass Luis Ton 9 -11,11- 9,14-12,11-9 in the semi-finals he was defeated by the top seed Sergio Carrillo of Guatemala 11-5, 11- 4, 11-8. Douglas therefore had to settle for the bronze medal. 

The other members of the six-man team fought gallantly but failed to register victories. In the junior division (under 18) there was Benoni Daniel and Shaquille Mitchell. Jakeem Welch in the boys cadets (under 15) while Jasher DeGannes and Ackayla Lucas represented us in the  girls’ cadets division (Under 15).

Some Selected Scores

Shaquille Mitchell Vs Gary Castro (Nicaragua) 7-11, 11-8, 3-11, 12–14.
Shaquille Mitchell Vs Martian Betancourt (Argentina) 11–8, 11–5, 11-2     
Benoni Daniel Vs Jamie Galeano (Spain) 12–10, 7-11, 5-11, 5-11
Benoni Daniel Vs Luis Medina (Honduras) 11-8, 8-11, 11-13, 11–4, 6-11
Jakeem Welch Vs Federico Cherny (Argentina) 8–11, 5-11, 8-11
Jakeem Welch Vs Miguel Jose Cachafeiro (Panama) 8–11, 8–11, 9-11 
Jasher DeGannes Vs Candela Molero (Argentina) 7–11, 2–11, 6-11
Ackayla Lucas Vs Ingrid Marin (Guatemala) 8–11, 11–9, 8–11, 7–11.
Ackayla Lucas Vs Angela Palomo (Guatemala) 7–11, 11–9, 5–11, 8-11 

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