Top Trinidad and Tobago Open Water swimmer Christian Marsden smashed the course record on his way to a convincing victory yesterday in the 11th Kia Around Gasparee Open Water swim.

Representatives from the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF), including its President Ung Chang, have been invited to the attend the 2015 World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) Championships in order the continue the recent collaboration between the two bodies.

It follows a historic Protocol of Accord signed between the Seoul-based WTF and the North Korea-centred ITF in August in Nanjing in the presence of International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach.

Since then, there has been much dialogue between the two bodies, with the presence as the Championships, scheduled for Chelyabinsk in Russia from May 12 to 18, another positive step.

"The WTF is always looking at ways to develop and evolve taekwondo for the benefit of athletes and fans around the world and opening up our relationship with the ITF is a key way of doing this," said WTF President Chungwon Choue.

"President Chang and the ITF taekwondo demonstration team's presence at the upcoming 2015 WTF World Taekwondo Championships would be a very significant step towards uniting our global taekwondo family.

"While we are two separate organisations, we share a common history and a common passion for our great sport.

"We want to work with the ITF to ensure that every athlete, regardless of their federation, nationality, race or gender all have the opportunity to compete at the Olympic Games."

The WTF is currently the only taekwondo body recognised by the IOC but the ITF is the older body having been founded in 1966 by general Choi Hong Hi in Seoul.

Following his exile from South Korea by the Park Chung-hee administration, Choi moved to Canada and established the ITF headquarters in Toronto, moving it to Vienna in 1985.

Following Choi's death in 2002 Chang was elected as the new President of the ITF, following backing from the North Korean administration in Pyongyang.

Divisions over the years, namely with Choi's son Choi Jung Hwa and Master Trần Triệu Quân, has led to rifts within the ITF and caused three separate organisations to be established.

The ITF, which has close links with North Korea, due partly to Choi's exile from South Korea, but also through Chang, the country's only current IOC member, has been in discussions with the WTF for a number of years.

Under the latest agreement, athletes registered with the WTF and the ITF are free to compete in the other Federation's competitions, under the rules and formats of the separate organisations.

This will create "exciting new opportunities as the world's very best taekwondo athletes will have the chance to compete against one another, regardless of which Federation they belong to", it is claimed, with North Korean participation at the Olympic Games in the sport one such possibility.

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Political parties contesting the upcoming general elections are being asked to include sport as one of the growth poles and pillars of their National Strategy and vision for Trinidad and Tobago.

Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee(TTOC) President Brian Lewis has issued a  call to the Political Parties to make Sport one of the key pillars of the sustainable economic and social development and future of Trinidad and Tobago .

"Include sport as one of the key pillars in policy plans for taking Trinidad and Tobago forward.

Give sport equal prominence as energy, crime, health and education."

Lewis believes that Sport has an essential role in building a better Trinidad and Tobago: a more inclusive and caring society .

"An important step would be to ensure  there are qualified physical education( PE) teachers in every primary and secondary school in Trinidad and Tobago."

"Physical literacy is as important as numeracy and reading literacy. In the education system place physical literacy on an equal footing with literacy and numeracy."

Lewis backed up his view with supporting data from a recent  TTOC-commissioned Solution by Stimulation Sport Sentiment Survey in which the pollsters found that 80 per cent of the population considers themselves sports fans while just over 70 per cent  believe that with proper implementation and resources,  10 or more Olympic Gold medals by 2024 is a realistic objective.

"Those are significant numbers. Sport ought not to be undervalued by the  policy planners, "Lewis concluded.

Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee  (TTOC)  president Brian Lewis held a very positive meeting with newly appointed Minister of Sports Brent Sancho and his permanent secretary Richard Oliver this morning (Friday 6th February, 2015) at the Ministry of Sports' headquarters on Abercromby Street. Sport Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SPORTT)  acting CEO Adrian Raymond was also in attendance. At the meeting, Lewis and Sancho discussed the Pan Am Games, Rio 2016, and the Elite Athlete Assistance Programme. "The discussions were candid and solution-oriented and the importance of the Ministry of Sport (MOS) , Sport Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SPORTT) and the TTOC working together to improve good goverance in  national sporting organisations (NSOs) was also emphasised,  "said the TTOC boss. Lewis also shared his view  with the Minister and PS  that no NGB, NSO or club should be able to obtain MOS funding without satisfying proper governance guidelines including audited accounts and properly accounting for previous funding received.

Lewis said  the meeting was constructive and positive . " The TTOC gave the Minister and PS the assurance that the TTOC will share information and knowledge with the MOS , Minister and PS in respect of global issues and solutions. Both the Minister and PS are very clear about what are the issues and challenges, " Lewis said. He said transparency and accountability-good governance  and putting the athletes best interests first figured prominently in the hour-long meeting.

HYPOCRISY. This was how former West Indies Players Association (WIPA) president Dinanath Ramnarine yesterday described the recent nominations of Joel Garner and Baldath Mahabir for the posts of president and vice-president respectively, in the wake of forthcoming West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) elections next month.

Ramnarine thinks that these nominations should be openly rejected by the Caribbean’s cricketing bodies as he feels the pair failed to distinguish themselves as WICB Directors and must share the blame for the decline of Windies cricket due to the poor functioning of the regional governing body. He said the most recent administrative scandal was the players’ strike of the India Tour (October, 2014) and a looming US$42 million bill from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

According to the former national cricketer, Garner and Mahabir are WICB members and together had a part to play in the events leading up to the players’ strike in India. Following the team’s actions in October, the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) executive committee also threw their support behind the WICB, unequivocally condemning the players for their actions on tour in a resolution.

However, recent newspaper reports during the past week indicated that the TTCB executive met on Tuesday and “deliberated long and hard over the events that took place recently in West Indies cricket and it was decided that too many mistakes were made concerning the aborted Indian tour and that Cameron and Nanton had to be held accountable.”

Responding to these recent happenings, Ramnarine explained, “it’s wrong and hypocritical for them (Garner, Mahabir) to come across like this (for nomination) now. Because they are now distancing themselves from Cameron and Nanton due to how they handled the situation with the BCCI in an improper way.

“I sat down with Azim Bassarath, Baldath Mahabir, Manohar Ramsaran and all the people within the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board and they condemned the players without even understanding the other side and accepted no responsibility whatsoever. Because the question was raised, whether the WICB was at fault at all, and they didn’t think so.” The former national and West Indies leg-break bowler believes the entire WICB committee disqualified themselves on the basis of their performance and how they have run regional cricket during their tenure.

“They have proven to be unsuitable for these leadership positions because collectively and individually they have demonstrated that they are incapable of defending West Indies cricket. If fact, what they have done is taken the sport 20 years back. What is the sense putting the same people to do the same thing and expect a different result?” Ramnarine questioned.

Asked what may be a possible solution to this fiasco, Ramnarine called for good governance of all regional cricketing boards, starting with the WICB and into other Caribbean bodies.

“It comes down to the governance of cricket and it comes back to the root cause which are the territorial boards. Territorial boards do not have a proper governance structure. For example, the TTCB has 12 outgoing votes. Twelve people do not put themselves up to be elected when they have an outgoing vote. That is 50 percent of the votes that you need to win any election.

“This shows that they are supported by an undemocratic, unfair and unconstitutional constitution that they have benefitted from and it’s almost impossible to move the incumbents, not because you don’t want to move them, but the constitution is set in a way that it is impossible for them to move. It’s like asking themselves, to remove themselves,” he added.

Ramnarine also noted that the West Indies team has not been playing up to par due to the fact that the Caribbean’s management and administration of the sport have failed across the board. He also hailed Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) president Brian Lewis who recently reiterated the significance of good and transparent governance.

He concluded, “from my understanding, the BCCI is going to deal with Cameron because he upset them in a tremendous way. I don’t think that Garner and Mahabir have the negotiating skills to bring the WICB out of this. These guys have been around for a long time now and what do they have to show for this time?

“Regional cricket is going in the opposite direction. The TTCB supported it and it is absolutely hypocritical to come now and try to distance themselves in pursuit of power.

“The other regional cricket boards should take note, distance themselves and reject all four of them (Cameron, Nanton, Garner and Mahabir).”

Efforts to contact Bassarath and Mahabir yesterday proved futile.

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