Brian Lewis, general secretary of the T&T Olympic Committee (TTOC), on Wednesday declared there was one young man in local sports who was the epitome of a titan and his name is Marc Burns.
“That’s a leader and that’s a patriot. That’s standing up for what he believes and that’s principle. If you can’t spell the word patriot and you don’t know what a patriot is or means, you just have to look at Marc Burns,” he said.
Lewis was speaking at the continuation of the four-day sport symposium being held at the Cascadia Hotel and Conference Centre titled No Pain, No Gain produced by The Sports Desk. Lewis was invited to speak to 300 secondary school students on the topic: The Principle.
“If everybody in this room could achieve 50 per cent of what he has done for this country, you’ll be a hell of a young man or young woman. This is an individual—as is typical in T&T—who is undervalued because he may not be as flambouyant as others, but he has loyalty and commitment,” he said.
To qualify his statement, Lewis turned the attention of the audience back to the 2007 Pan Am Games when this country was close to not competing in the 4x100-metre relay because athletes being considered were either recovering from injury or had clashing schedules.
“Marc Burns stood up and told his teammates and all of T&T, that T&T will run in the relay...We have an attitude in T&T, that when we reach, we forget. It is a fact. So when it comes to attending games such as the Pan Am Games, Central American and Caribbean Games and Commonwealth Games, aside from the Olympic Games, challenges occur and sometimes not all of our best athletes are available. Their schedules may not permit it. That has never been the case with Marc Burns,” he said.
Lewis added, “The biggest obstacle in achieving whatever you may define as success is yourself. We are very good at making excuses and hiding and running from responsibility and looking for the easy way out. All of you are teenagers. Each of you has to take full responsibility for the choices that you make and shaping your own destiny. There’s no excuse.”