In an effort to bring more athletes and fans to our shores, the Sport Company of T&T (SporTT) sent two officials to the recently held World Market in London.
A mission from T&T organised by the Ministry of Tourism left these shores for the event and CEO of SporTT, Adrian Raymond saw it as an opportunity to advertise this country’s sports facilities, as well as gain valuable information on operating systems for the mega facilities currently under construction.
Representing SporTT were Kyron Serette and Natasha Nunez. Serette speaking on the Sports Drive on Heritage Radio said: “This was a fantastic opportunity for us to take part in the world market. What we found is that people normally view us here in the Caribbean as just a holiday destination but we were able to get to officials from many of the participating countries to let them know that we have a lot to offer.”
Nunez who is a communications officer at SporTT said: “A number of them were surprised to know that we have these great facilities on hand. Now teams can come here for camps ahead of major world events and this is what we are focussing on. So it is not just about having teams coming here for competitions.
“We have world class facilities under construction at the moment and are due to be completed soon.
“Sporting associations around the world can now send their teams to our country and in addition to having great weather for training, they can also enjoy the wonderful facilities and the added on is of course our lovely beaches. The people in our country are also warm and open and this is something we need to allow them to know as well.”
Both Nunez and Serette also took the opportunity to move away from the proceedings of the World Market and visit many places of interest, in terms of sport development.
According to Serette: “We visited SPORT England and whilst there, we were able to get very valuable information in terms of sport development and facility management.
“We have the Aquatic Centre, the Cycling Velodrome, the Tennis Centre and many other smaller facilities that can be used by international athletes. We were able to bring back information that could be used to enhance the facilties.
“For instance, when we visited the English Cycling Centre we noticed simple things that we did not know, like making sure the doors to the facility opened outwards.
“By doing this the cyclists are not affected by the air moving in and out of the building. Then there are other aspects of design that might be costly right now but is something we can implement as we go along.”
Nunez was particularly impressed with the Swimming arena in London, saying: “They had adjustable floors in their diving pools and practice pools, so they could have easily varied the depth of the pool. We were lucky to witness these things because now we can assist by giving this information to our technical people.”
Serette ended by saying that all this information gained could come to nothing with follow up and they have since been in contact with all the officials, they met since their arrival home and they have promised to open bi-lateral communication for all concerned.