Hundreds sing along as athletes, VIPs attend PoS celebrations.
MORE than 500 primary and secondary school children, including more than 150 from the sister isle, sang along to the strains of Erphaan Alves’ Team TTO-inspired “Believe” theme song as the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) hosted Olympic Day celebrations yesterday.
At the Lord Harris Square, right opposite the TTOC Olympic House on Abercromby Street, a fair-like atmosphere was created, with booths from national sporting organisations (the T&T Tennis, Sailing, Squash Association and Chess Associations among them) and TTOC partners and sponsors, including the Ministry of Sport and The Sports Company (SPORTT), Flow, Scotiabank, Press Play Juke Box and Toyota.
The event also coincided with the City Day celebrations yesterday, with Mayor of Port of Spain Keron Valentine stopping by to witness the proceedings. Valentine also ducked inside Olympic House to add his signature to the hundreds on the #10golds24 board, the Athlete Welfare and Preparation Fund initiative pioneered by TTOC president Brian Lewis when he completed the 2014 Trinidad and Tobago International Marathon.
Earlier, Minister of Sport Darryl Smith also visited the event and was greeted by Lewis and the TTOC secretary general, Annette Knott.
The school children were treated to a skit by drama group, Drama Making A Difference (DMAD), who extolled the virtues of Trinidad and Tobago’s Olympians and jokingly compared them to the powers of the Marvel Comics’ Avengers characters.
Also present yesterday were SPORTT chairman Michael Phillips and Olympians including Cleopatra Borel, Jehue Gordon, Semoy Hackett, Kelly-Ann Baptiste and Keston Bledman, all gearing up for the National Association of Athletic Administrations (NAAA) Sagicor/NGC Senior National Track and Field Championships which are doubling as the Rio Olympic Trials, this weekend at the Hasely Crawford Stadium. World Junior silver medallist Khalifa St Fort was also on hand.
Soca artistes Alves and Sekon Sta, who both commissioned songs, namely “Believe” and “My World” respectively for the Team TTO Rio campaign, had the kids singing along during their performances.
Wacth the photo gallery [here]