Now is the time to build a stadium in Toco in honour of double Olympic medallist Keshorn Walcott, says chairman of the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation Martin “Terry” Rondon.
Rondon made the statement to the Sunday Guardian moments after Walcott won a bronze medal at the Rio games. It is the only medal this country has won at this year’s Olympic games.
“Now is the time to get our stadium. Now is the time to have a proper place for training our athletes in Toco. Now is the time, let’s use this win in order to get a stadium in Toco,” Rondon said.
He said since Walcott won the gold medal at the London Olympics there has been an increase in young athletes in the village.
“Keshorn’s achievement is for the youngsters. That is for the youngsters, those youngsters in Toco. Since four years ago athletics in Toco has gone so far you can see the development of athletics in the Toco area. If you go to the secondary school you will see how many trophies have been won by those children and now with this we can expect even more athletes will come out from Toco,” he said.
Rondon said Toco plans to welcome home their hero in fine style.
“We are keeping a celebration. We are going to welcome him home in Toco style. We have put everything in place for it. We will meet him at the airport when he comes back and celebrate in style,” he said.
President of the T&T Olympic Committee (TTOC) Brian Lewis described Walcott’s back-to-back Olympic medals as a “tremendous effort.”
“Keshorn dug deep for his country. He is only 23 years old. He has a bright, bright future, God willing he stays healthy. Tremendous effort to be a back-to-back medallist in javelin. I congratulate his coach and physiotherapist the Cuban connection. We salute Keshorn,” Lewis said.
“He fought like a champion. Winning Olympic medals aren’t easy. I hope Trinidad and Tobago sport fans realise and acknowledge that. Hail Keshorn,” he said.
Double Olympic silver medallist Marc Burns said Walcott delivered an amazing performance despite the pressure placed on him.
“Keshorn pulled off a big, big performance seeing that people thought it was a bit of a dismal Olympics for Trinidad and Tobago and to come back-to-back at that age, 23 years old, that is amazing to stand up on the big stage once again when the chips were stacked against him with the pressure of bringing home a medal,” Burns said.
“He stood up to that pressure and that was a big, big performance on his part,” he said.
With respect to the disqualification of the Men’s 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams on Friday night, Burns said they put up “valiant efforts.”
“I know Trinidad and Tobago is rightfully a bit disappointed in the performances but athletes always go into competitions with one goal on their mind and that is to do their best. Especially when it comes to country, that is no better obligation to an athlete to perform, so tough luck for them but they left it out on the track there and although the turnout was not what we hoped for as a country it was still a very valiant performance by both teams despite the disqualifications.”