PERHAPS no cricket team in history is as revered as the West Indies side of the 1980s. From 1980 to 1995, the team did not lose a single Test series.

Sprinter Ato Boldon, was the third fastest man in the world over 100 metres in the summer of 1995, becoming another Caribbean sports hero. Denise Healy looks at his chances of winning Gold at the Atlanta Olympics.

CATEGORY F43 Para Pan-American discus champion Akeem Stewart launched to bronze in the men’s discus throw at the 2015 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Athletics World Championships which got underway in Doha, Qatar, yesterday.

Against 11 other competitors from across the globe, Stewart advanced to the four-man final and hauled the implement a distance of 59.13 metres to capture the bronze medal in fine style.

Stewart however, was favoured to win gold this time around, having previously thrown a topped the field at the Parapan Am Games in August (Toronto, Canada) with a meet record distance of 63.03m. Winning gold on day one of the world tourney yesterday was American Jeremy Campbell (61.21) while his compatriot David Blair held on to silver (60.46m).

While Stewart’s opponents were categorized as F44 (meaning their impairment is less than his) he faced an uphill battle throughout the rounds. After the second round, it was up to Stewart, Blair and Campbell to battle for supremacy.

All three did a foul in their first two throws while Dan Greaves from the UK, another favourite, had two fouls in his first two attempts, but joined the top three at his third attempt.

After the first three attempts, the last four were eliminated, with the top eight progressing.

It was already clear though, that the battle for precious metal would have been shared between USA and TT . Stewart’s credible performance in Doha yesterday puts him in keen contention for a podium place at the next year’s Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

He has already positioned himself well in the top of the competition, even though competing in the F44 class.

Nyoshia Cain will face the starter in Heat Two of the 200m (T44) from 1.06 pm today (TT time). She is still due to qualify for Rio 2016 and will not hesitate to use this opportunity to do so. For that, she will have to do a minimum time of 30.5 seconds in her heat or the final, if she advances.

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T&T’s middle and long distance runner Tonya Nero will attempt to bring an end the trend of international runners dominating local events such as the UWI Spec International Half Marathon which will be held on Sunday from 5.30 am.

Nero returned home from Guadeloupe on Monday afternoon where she competed at the Guadeloupe 10k and placed second in a time 36 minutes and 51 seconds, which was a marked improvement from last year where she placed third in 38:44. She is now sending a warning to all visiting female runners to watch out, she will be looking to secure the top spot and cash prize available.

Last year Kenya’s Caroline Kiptoo claimed victory ahead of Brazil’s Cruz Nonata Da Silva and third Lineita Madeus Rojas of Colombia. These four runners are expected to be back along with T&T’s best finisher at sixth, Samantha Shukla.

But on her return to local shores on Monday, Nero said she has intensified her training for the UWI Half Marathon which will also be used as preparation for a marathon in Dubai on January 22.

“These days I run 65-70 miles every week in preparation for the race. Among these miles will be some hill runs which I do to build strength in my home village of Maracas, St Joseph, otherwise I will train at either the Maracas St Joseph Recreation Ground or at the Aranjuez Savannah,” Nero said.

The slender built 26 year old T&T runner has already devised her plan for Sunday, saying she will go out hard at the start and will maintain her position with the leading runners, before she goes for a dash to the end.

“My race will not be dictated by any other runner, whether it’s local or foreign. I will be running my own race on Sunday,” she said.

Nero did not compete in the half marathon last year, instead choosing to participate at the Guyana 10k which she won convincingly. But come Sunday she will embrace a challenge by local organisers of road race events to win a race that will feature a number of top foreign runners. Organisers these days have been offering incentives for local runners to win events that also comprise international participants, because of complaints by locals that the international runners receive all the prizes in their homeland.

Nero is confident she can bring home the win, not for herself only but also T&T.

“This year I am a stronger runner. I started training for this event and the Dubai marathon about three weeks ago. I have done a lot of strength and speed work under my trainer Paul Voisin and I will be aiming to better my time in the race,” Nero said.

She told the Guardian also that she sympathizes with local runners who may not get the type of preparation to compete with international runners who run for a living.

“Fortunately for me, I have been exposed to running with some of these runners and I know what it takes to win the race so I am going to give it my best shot,” Nero said.

Meanwhile the men’s event is also shaping up to be a showdown in the 13.1 mile event from the St Augustine Campus to the La Resource junction in D’Abadie and back, with champion Chavez Da Silva bidding to secure the win for yet another time. The Brazilian has said he wants to win the race for 10 years straight.

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Organisers of athletic events in T&T such as the UWI Spec International Half Marathon and the T&T International Marathon are being heavily being criticised by locals and other Caribbean athletes for the standard of international runners being invited for these events.

However Diane Henderson, a chief organiser of the T&T International Marathon is instead calling on local and regional runners to embrace efforts being made to improve their times at races and do their part. Yesterday Guyana’s Kevin Johnson and Lionel Dandrade who are resident runners here in T&T have expressed the view that consideration must be made for the caliber of international runners who are invited here for major road race events, to be dropped.

They feel the standard of international runners being invited is preventing local runners from capitalising on the prizes available. In fact Johnson whose best finish at the UWI half marathon was sixth in 2011, said he considers it a major disrespect to local runners.

“If they want to bring in competition for the local runners then organisers need to look for runners whose times are between one hour and 14 minutes to one hour and 15 minutes. Instead they have been bringing in athletes clocking times like one hour and two minutes etc which has been more demoralising for the T&T runners” Johnson said.

For many years international runners have dominated events such as the then Clico International Marathon to the T&T international marathon to the UWI Spec Half marathon to all other small events such as the Butler Classic, Ventures Credit Union 5k, Bankers Insurance 20k to the Air Bon Sonics 5k among many other events.

For these events runners such as Kenyan Kennedy Rotich and Philip Lagat, Brazil’s Chavez Da Silva, Mary Akor (Nigeria), Caroline Kiptoo (Kenya), Cruz Nonata Da Silva (Brazil) and Lineita Madeus Rojas (Colombia) have not only made their mark on local soil but have won some of the main cash prizes available.

Johnson, who now admits that he does not really look forward to the UWI Spec International Half Marathon or the T&T Marathon told Guardian yesterday “Once the local runners see a foreign runner who clocks 1:02 minutes then they tell themselves they have to try and settle for the best position after them. We have been seeing it for years now” Johnson said.

He added “In fact I feel sorry for the T&T runners because the prizes available become out of their reach with the class of the international runners that have been invited. And to make my point, at the Bankers Insurance event that was held recently, I finished sixth behind the international runners and all the other local runners finished after me, so I felt bad for them” Johnson explained.

His country man Dandrade said it is difficult to win the UWI half marathon or the T&T International marathon or any other race with the type of international runners they are bring here. Meanwhile Johnson and Dandrade also took a swipe at the prize structure for the UWI half marathon and called on organisers to increase the prize monies if the event is to survive. The outspoken Johnson said the prize monies have been the same from since inception and people who participate in road race event for a living could be turned off by that.

Johnson said “the cost of living has been going up each year but the prizes for the uwi half marathon has remained the same.

This is the reason why I do not focus on that race because I would usually go abroad which cash incentives are more attractive but I think organisers of the uwi event should consider increasing their prizes for all categories.”

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