...Browne, Quan Chan return

T&T will be without the talented Darren Cowie and five other regulars for the FIH World Hockey League Round Two qualifiers set for Chula Vista, San Diego, California, USA, from February 28 to March 8.

This after Cowie, who led the team as captain to the Round One win in Jamaica last September and a silver medal at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in November, was forced to withdraw from the team due to work commitments.

In addition to Cowie, other members of the team who participated in the first-round series and the CAC Games in Mexico are also forced to pull out of the event. They include Aidan De Gannes, Christopher Scipio and Ishmael Campbell through work commitments, while Kiel Murray and Stefan Mouttet are injured.

However, making a return to the team are England-based Kwandwane Browne, Dillet Gilkes and Dwain Quan Chan, all of whom will be making their first tour together in over a year, while youngsters Joshua Olton, Kelon Skerritt and Teague Marcano have all been drafted into the training squad.

Francis also welcomed the introduction of the new faces in the training squad, saying, “The team is in transition at the moment as over the next couple of years, players like Browne and Gilkes and a few others will not be around, and it is hoped that these youngsters gain enough experience now to pick up where they leave.

“We have a lot of youth in the set-up now with the Emmanuel brothers, Kristin and Kwasi, Marcano boys, Tariq and Teague as well as Lyndell Byer, Joshua Olton and Kelon Skerritt, and they are all the future of T&T hockey.

In California, T&T will compete in one group with USA, Russia and Canada while Austria, Chile, Ireland and Italy are in the other round-robin group at the end of which the team will meet in cross-over quarterfinal matches followed by semifinals, third placed and final matches.

And looking ahead to the tournament, coach Glen “Fido” Francis,” who returns to lead the team after interim coach Raphael Govia coached the team through the round one series in Jamaica last year, said the group draw for the local squad is a tough one, but also presents a good chance to prove itself worthy of being involve.

“We will be the lowest-ranked team in the tournament and based on the new format we are already assured of a quarterfinal spot as only eight teams are involved.

“However, we want to get past that hurdle and reach the semifinals for the least.

“The current crop of players are a very good mix of youth and experience, but we still have lots of work to do as a team and for that we will need to the support of the powers that be financially,” he said.

A former national goalkeeper Francis also welcomed the return of Browne, who he says will bring a lot to the team.

Following the World League round-two series, the national men’s team is carded to head to the Pan Am Games in Toronto, Canada, from July 10-26.

Men’s training squad

Ron Alexander, Kwandwane Browne, Cogie Butler, Lyndell Byer, Shaquille Daniel, Solomon Eccles, Kwasi Emmanuel, Kristen Emmanuel, Dillet Gilkes, Nicholas Grant, Dominic Jaikaransingh, Marcus James, Shane Legerton, Terrence Baptiste, Justin Pascal, Tariq Marcano, Che Modeste, Michael O’Connor, Allan Henderson, Mickell Pierre, Dwain Quan Chan, Jordan Reynos, Andrey Rocke, Karlos Stephen, Akim Toussaint, Jordan Vieira, Danil Trancoso, Dominic Young, Teague Marcano, Kelon Skerritt, Joshua Olton.​

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The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step ~Lao Tzu  The journey to #10golds24 (10 or more Olympic Gold Medals by 2024) will begin  on Sunday 25 January 2015 at 330am at St Mary's Junction , Freeport.

A new mindset, vision ,attitude and culture  #10golds24 #walkyourtalk. Athlete centred athlete focused.

Failure is not an option.

History of the Marathon

The marathon is a long-distance running event with an official distance of 42.195 km (26 miles and 385 yards) that is usually run as a road race. The event began as a commemoration of the fabled run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, a messenger from the Battle of Marathon to Athens.

Legend has it that in 490 BC there was a big war between the Persians and the Greeks on the battlegrounds of Marathon. Despite being outnumbered by the Persians 5:1, the valiant Greeks managed to defeat the Persians. The retreating Persians headed for Athens (the capital of Greece) in ships to capture the women and children who were waiting for the news about the war. The Greek army commissioned Pheidippides to carry a message to the waiting families, the news of the victory and to warn them of the approaching danger. Pheidippides ran 40 kms from Marathon to Athens very tired. He managed to convey the message and immediately thereafter, collapsed and died.

This great event inspired the inclusion of the Marathon as an event in modern day Olympics. The first Marathon race was run in 1896 at the Summer Olympics. The race was won by the Greek runner, Spiridon Louis.

Training to be an Olympic champion is a full time commitment requiring significant time and resources. In an effort to further support the athletes of Trinidad & Tobago, the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) recently announced the launch of the #10golds24 Athlete Welfare and Preparation Fund.

The vision of #10golds 24 (10 or more Olympic Gold medals by 2024) is to further enable national athletes to realize their Olympic dreams. The fund will provide financial assistance to Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games athletes to enable them to train, recover and compete at the highest level.

Fund support may include:

Direct financial support

Medal bonus

Health and Accident Insurance (Providing world class medical support to our top athletes is of paramount importance. Injury and illness can threaten an athlete's career if they're not identified and dealt with quickly.) Internships with Corporate T&T to prepare for life after elite sport Life Skills training Anti Doping education and awareness Financial Literacy training Media Training. TTOC President Brian Lewis will launch the fund on January 25th, 2015 by participating in the 2015 Trinidad International Marathon. Lewis  to raise $500,000TT for the Fund through his participation.

Other fund raising activities will be revealed in due course.

The vision of the fund is to serve TTO's athletes . It is intended that the Fund will be independent , transparent, ethical, accountable and non governmental. For our athletes fulfilling their Olympic dreams requires years of dedication, sacrifice and single minded focus. This fund underscores The TTOC's  commitment to supporting our athletes on their long and arduous journey.

BISHOP ANSTEY proved themselves queens of the Digicel Girls Schools Rugby.

They won the title during the 2014 season, and at a recent prize distribution ceremony they claimed the trophy for their success.

Also among the trophies were Fatima College who won the Under-14 title in the Digicel Trinidad and Tobago Schools Rugby Football Union.

The Fatima boys won both the league and knockout titles

International School took the trophy in winning the Under-17 series.

At the prize distribution ceremony, Digicel Branding and events manager Natalie Black O’Connor said, “it really is a pleasure being able to support the skill and talent of these youngsters.

“The talent has truly grown from year to year and I am really proud of the level of skill displayed.”

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Former England and Lions great Jeremy Guscott is now a rugby union pundit for the BBC and a consultant in the field of data and telematics. Ahead of next month’s RBS Six Nations tournament, we sat down with the man Sir Clive Woodward once described as “the Prince of Centres” to discuss the critical role data now plays in the modern game and what the sport and business worlds can learn from one another when it comes to adopting data-led technology.

How much was data and technology a part of rugby union during your playing career? Did you get a sense of a transition while you were playing?

The concept of data has been around for a long time in rugby union. Over the years the data available has become more abundant, specific and refined. There’s been a gradual move towards greater detail and more ability to capture, report and feedback.

Back in 1989 when I made my debut for England, the fitness team consisted of one person and analysis was fairly basic. We were tested on speed, speed endurance, power and strength. Team and individual player analysis was prepared, again by just one person, and came in the form of a single video tape which would be paused and played to highlight key points.

Typically in today’s team management set up at an elite club you will have an entire department dedicated to sports science and performance and to both team and individual analysis.

How much did the game going professional impact on the adoption of data-led analysis?

Rugby has always been big on fitness, but the impact of professionalism in this area was dramatic because it meant you could train full time. When the game went professional, you began to see a big physical difference emerge in the body shapes of professional rugby players compared with those of the amateurs.
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Professionalism typically means more money, which in turn means more resource to measure and prepare both rugby teams and individual players. All sports are engaged in a search for those marginal gains that will improve a player’s and the team’s performance. This search is now led by data.

How important do you feel data and technology is to the modern game?

Technology and data are a massive part of rugby union today. So much so that it’s now literally in the fabric of the sport, with GPS devices sewn into a small pouch between the shoulder blades of players’ shirts at the elite level. These devices measure in minute detail the distances and speeds players are covering during training and playing.

In real-time, they can reveal what a player’s average speed is, when a player’s intensity starts to drop and in some cases even measure their heart rate, all of which enable the coaching staff to monitor who is performing above or below their usual level. These insights are particularly useful in training when a player comes back from injury. Based on the data you can customise specific training for any player because you have their full fitness diagnostics to compare with.

I believe data and technology go stride for stride together. The better the technology, generally, the better the data, and the better the data, the better the chances of maintaining and improving performance.

Where do you sit in terms of the balance between numbers and nous in sport?

When I first started out playing as a senior I wasn’t too interested in statistics. I just wanted to play and I relied heavily on my instincts. I didn’t want to know too much about what the opposition did or didn’t do. For me I had a player to beat or a player to tackle. In my mind there was no tech or data required to achieve that goal.

I remember when Clive Woodward first took over as England head coach he put up some charts and showed us how much fitter New Zealand were than us. The point he was making was ‘how did we expect to beat the best team in the world if we weren’t as fit as them?’. From the very first day with Woodward our fitness conditioning changed

Are there parallels to be drawn in terms of the business world?

There are obvious parallels to be drawn between adopting a data-led approach in sport and taking a similar approach in business. In my day job as a consultant in fleet risk management we utilise telemetry technology (the remote capture and analysis of data) to improve driver behaviour and dynamic routing and scheduling optimisation.

In very basic terms the metrics collected through telemetry are fed back to drivers, helping to improve driving behaviour which in turn enables businesses to make savings in fuel and vehicle maintenance costs because the vehicle is being driven safely and more efficiently. Because driving is improved there will be fewer on the road incidents, resulting in lower insurance claims costs which again save money.

The software used in routing and scheduling makes sure drivers are taking the best routes, therefore optimising their time on the roads. It also provides the ability to set a maximum number of jobs per schedule and a maximum shift length.

Is there a risk, both in business and in sport, of becoming too reliant on data and technology at the expense of human instinct and emotion?

In my role as a BBC rugby pundit I find the statistics we have at our fingertips provide us with incredibly useful insights that quite often defy apparent logic. When critiquing a player or a team it’s particularly powerful because we have facts that enable us be accurate and persuasive in our analysis.

On the other hand, some analytics are not yet as sophisticated or reliable as we would like. For example, one stat I look at is ‘defenders beaten’. It tells me a number, but it doesn’t tell me if it was a side-step or off which foot the tackle was missed. I have to combine that data with watching to get the full picture. It’s the same with a tackle stat. It’s just a number, so it can’t tell me how important the tackle was. I have to look at a re-run of the match to see how important the tackle was.

For me, the best analytics help back up my instinct that I have about a player having watched them live. Statistics can often surprise you, sometimes mislead you but always provide a richer understanding of the game.

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