Melissa Joseph, 20, is keen on bringing glory to Trinidad and Tobago at the 2015 World Taekwondo Championships and 2016 Olympics.

Joseph, is a US-based, American born, WTF Global Licensed Taekwondo athlete, born to TT parents.

She represented the USA, competing at an International level, but has switched allegiances to Trinidad and Tobago.

Joseph is a multiple international taekwondo medallist and has performed at the top “G” ranked status tournaments.

She has displayed resounding ambition and talent, exemplifying a serious nature regarding her career. Such testament to her diversity is that Joseph is a former Miss Horizonte Pageant (representing Trinidad and Tobago) third runner-up in 2012.

She has been selected by the Trinidad and Tobago Taekwondo Association to represent the national team, with two main goals — the 2015 WTF World Taekwondo Championships in Chelybinsk, Russia from May 12-18, as well as the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. These games are the dual pinnacle in the world for taekwondo.

Joseph is currently a medical student at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida, so between studies, charity work and professional competition, her goals are lofty but she believes they are attainable because of her ambitious nature.

Training out of two taekwondo training bases in Orlando and Tampa, Florida, Joseph is intent on pursuing excellence. Persons interested in funding Joseph’s quest for these Games can go to http://www.gofundme.com/r63bq5g. Joseph can be contacted via her fan club email at mjtkdintlmedalist@yahoo.com.

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Former junior national cyclist Akil Campbell was the star on the opening night of the National Track Cycling Championships at the Arima Velodrome, on Friday night. In the elite men’s 4km team pursuit, Campbell, along with Varun Maharajh, Barry Luces and Jovian Gomez, broke the national and track record in the event to win gold in a time of 4:42.696. Campbell, now 19, then defeated Maharajh (silver) and Gomez (bronze) to grab gold in the elite men’s scratch event.

In the junior women’s team sprint, Kollyn St George had to battle against her national junior teammates Keiana Lester and Teniel Campbell. St George along with her younger sister Jhordan won gold in 38.926 seconds, narrowly ahead of Lester and Campbell in 38.958.St George (Kollyn), Lester and Campbell all represented T&T at the Junior Pan American Cycling Championships in Aguascalientes, Mexico, last month.

The elite and junior segment of the National Championships continued yesterday and finishes tomorrow night. The masters will be in action from May 8­–10, also at the Arima Velodrome.

RESULTS
Junior Women—Team Sprint
1 Jhordan St George, Kollyn St George—Breakaway
2 Keiana Lester, Teniel Campbell—Bike Smith/Rigtech Sonics
Elite Men—4km Team Pursuit
1 Akil Campbell, Varun Maharajh, Barry Luces (Rigtech Sonics), Jovian Gomez—PSL Cycling Club, 
Junior Men Scratch
1 Nicholas Paul—Rigtech Sonics
2 Ramon Belmontes—Team DPS
3 Emmanuel Watson—PSL Cycling
4 Myles Burnette—Rigtech Sonics
5 Brandon Gittens—Rigtech Sonics
Elite Men Scratch
1 Akil Campbell Akil—Rigtech Sonics
2 Varun Maharajh—Rigtech Sonics 
3 Jovian Gomez—Psl Cycling Club 
4 Sheldon Ramjit—Hummingbirds 
5 Gavyn Nero—Team DPS 
Junior Men 4km Team Pursuit
1 Tyler Cole, Nicholas Paul, Brandon Gittens, Myles Burnette—Rigtech Sonics
Elite Men—Team Sprint
1 Quincy Alexander, Jude Codrington, Justin Roberts—Team DPS
Elite Women—Team Sprint
1 Jodi Goodridge, Aziza Browne—Arima Wheelers

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The Secretary General of the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC), Mrs. Annette Knott, is representing the National Olympic Committee at the 13th International Session for Directors of National Olympic Academies (NOA) in Olympia, Greece. The main subject of the programme is the Olympic Values with a special focus on the “The Value of Excellence as an Educational Tool”.

 

The Session began with the opening ceremony on Sunday 3rd May which followed with a lecture by Mr. Conrado Durantez (ESP), President of the Paniberican Association of Olympic Academies, President of the National Olympic Academy of Spain, on the subject: “The Role of the IOA in the spread of the Olympic Ideal”.

 

A key moment at the opening ceremony was the laying of the wreath at the stele of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, renovator of the modern Olympic Games. His heart is buried at this memorial at the Olympic Academy.

 

Also attending from the Caribbean is Dave Farmer Director of NOA (Barbados), Curtis Smith NOA Member (Barbados), Alfred Emmanuel, Secretary General of St. Lucia Olympic Committee and President of NOA (St. Lucia) and Keith Joseph, Secretary General of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Olympic Committee and President of NOA (St. Vincent and the Grenadines).

TRINIDAD and Tobago’s female beach volleyball players advanced to the second round of regional qualifying for the Olympic Games in impressive fashion Friday at Ocho Rios Beach, Jamaica. After getting a bye in the first round of the CAZOVA (Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association) tournament, the No. 2 seeds brushed aside Haiti 2-0 to secure one of the six places in the second of four rounds of qualifying in the NORCECA (North, Central America and the Caribbean) region. Apphia Glasgow and La Teisha Joseph, quarterfinalists in the opening leg of the NORCECA Tour last weekend in Cayman Islands, got the ball rolling with a 21-12, 21-17 triumph over Djoulissa Marthe and Solaida Pierre. And then Elki Philip and Shenelle Gordon completed the job by whipping Caroline Graham and Graziella Chery 21-11, 21-17. Haiti had beaten Bahamas 2-0 in the first round and the other three first-round winners were also beaten in the second when they came up against seeded countries. Curacao cruised past Martinque, but then went under by the same score line against Barbados, while Jamaica were 2-0 winners over Guadeloupe, 2-0 winners over Aruba earlier in the day. And after a 2-0 triumph over the United States Virgin Islands, Suriname were edged by Cayman Islands. Haiti, Guadeloupe, Curacao and Suriname battled yesterday to determine the two countries to move into the second round of regional qualifying alongside Barbados, Cayman Islands, Jamaica and T&T. The top six CAZOVA teams will battle against the top six in the ECVA (Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association) in the second round on a date and at the venue to be determined.  Champions will be crowned in this weekend’s tournament this afternoon after semifinals in the morning. T&T were scheduled to face Cayman Islands yesterday for a place in the last four. The opening round of CAZOVA men’s qualifying will take place in Trinidad at Saith Park, Chaguanas, from Friday until Sunday.

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THE Trinidad and Tobago Volleyball Federation (TTVF) will be paying tribute to Nancy Joseph during the Beach Volleyball Olympic Male Qualifier this weekend at Saith Park, Chaguanas.

 

The tournament is the opening leg of CAZOVA (Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association) qualifying for the Games of the XXX1 Olympiad, which will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August next year.

 

The 12 participating countries — Aruba, Barbados, Bahamas, Bonaire, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Suriname and T&T — will be represented by two pairs each and the top six countries will move on to the second of four rounds of qualifying in the NORCECA (North, Central America and the Caribbean) region.

 

Fabian Whitfield and Daneil Williams, winners all ten local tournaments this season without dropping a set, will fly the red, white and black flag, along with Josiah Eccles and Tevin Joseph, who competed alongside Tarandath Deonath in last year’s World Under-23 Beach Volleyball Championships.

 

Joseph earned the right to play in the opening leg of female qualifying, which concludes today in Jamaica, but decided to take a break from the game because of work commitments.

 

And the TTVF decided not to wait for the employee of Atlantic to announce her retirement to honour her for her invaluable contribution to the country on the sand for over a decade.

 

The TTVF has deemed the qualifier “The Road To Rio” and they have planned a female exhibition tournament “in honour of Trinidad’s legendary Nancy Joseph” during the weekend.

 

Joseph is the most celebrated beach volleyball player to ever emerge from this country and she is still the sport’s only representative for Sportswoman of the Year, eight years after breaking new ground.

 

The year 2007 is definitely one that she will never forget as Joseph also competed on her biggest stage that season when she and Elki Philip were the female beach representatives in the Pan American Games in Brazil.

 

Playing alongside Andrea Davis, Joseph participated in the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games the year before in Colombia and she returned to this stage in November last year and turned in one of the highlight performances of her career by reaching the quarter-finals with the assistance of Ayana Dyette in Mexico.

 

Although many in volleyball circles feel that this break spells goodbye, although the 34-year-old is still one of the leading players in the country and has confirmed that she has not retired.

 

Joseph had faced the nightmare of forced retirement on the heels of two of her best performances of her career four years ago.

 

It was a dream start to 2011 for the player who hails from central Trinidad as she and Philip won the regional Sizzling Sand Tournament in Barbados in February, defeating compatriots Dyette and Nadiege Honore in a final filmed by the world’s leading sports television, ESPN.

 

A few weeks later, the duo finished fourth in the Dominican Republic in one of their early outings in the very prestigious NORCECA Tour.

 

But while she was preparing for CAC Games less than a month later, Joseph suffered a serious knee injury and doubted she would ever set foot on the sand again following surgery.

 

However like a true champion she returned in the middle of 2012 and ended the year with her second NORCECA fourth-placed finish, alongside Dyette in the home leg in Toco at the end of October.

 

Joseph represented the country in four NORCECA events the following year and played alongside Dyette in six of the ten events in last year’s circuit.

 

The duo also enjoyed a perfect season at home last year, winning all nine local tournaments they played.

 

The National Beach Volleyball Championships have not been staged in four years, but it has been contested on six occasions and Joseph swept all six crowns.

 

National indoor player Rheeza Grant was her partner the first time around, while Davis was involved on the next two occasions, and Philip in the last three.

 

The female exhibition tournament will precede T&T’s matches in the Olympic Qualifier on all three nights and Joseph has accepted the invitation to play.

 

The Qualifier is scheduled to serve off on Friday morning.

Ria Ramnarine Graduates with Honours Distinction from the International Coaching Enrichment Certification Program

The International Coaching Enrichment Certification Program (ICECP) honored its class of 2015 in a ceremony held at the International Olympic Committee headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. The seventh edition of the ICECP – an intensive coaching education program developed by the United States Olympic Committee, the University of Delaware and the IOC – included 33 coaches representing five continents, 33 countries and 14 sports.

 

Among the 33 coaches, were former World Champion boxer Ria Ramanrine and founder of the ‘Boxing Beyond the Ring’ programme. The Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee congratulates Ria for achieving Honours Distinction from the ICECP programme.

 

“It was a life changing experience,” said Ria Ramnarine. “The ICECP programme enabled me to grow and develop as a coach and an individual. Working on my project, demanded both time and focus which was a little bit nerve wrecking. However, the experience served as an encouragement to move forward. I would like to thank Mr. Lewis, ICECP and Olympic Solidarity for providing me with this amazing opportunity. Many thanks to the Ministry of Gender, Youth and Child Development; Ramsingh's Sports World, CSF Couriers, Bharrath Ramoutar and all those who contributed to my success in one way or the other."

 

In her advice to future coaches from Trinidad and Tobago who may be afforded the opportunity, “They need to dedicate 7 months towards the programme. Implementing the project takes a lot of time and requires starting your project as soon as you get back home and building a good team. In closing, she leaves these three words “Go For It!”

 

In the final module, participants presented the projects they completed over the course of the program – which focused on improving coaching infrastructure in their home countries. Ria’s project was the ‘Beyond the Ring’ programme which was aimed at increasing female participation in boxing. The programme extends beyond the sport of boxing to help empower women and girls through self defense and health and fitness.

 

The 2014-15 program included coaches from American Samoa, Austria, Antigua and Barbuda, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, People’s Republic of China, Colombia, Cook Islands, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Grenada, India, Jordan, Latvia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Malaysia, Maldives, Mozambique, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Serbia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, United States and Uganda. For more information on the ICECP, visit http://www.udel.edu/icecp.

 

ABOUT ICECP A program of the United States Olympic Committee, the University of Delaware and the International Olympic Committee, the International Coaching Enrichment Certification Program aims at assisting national-level coaches in developing proficiency in the areas of sport sciences, talent identification, athlete development, safe sport, coaching education, coaching management and grass roots sport development. The intended outcome is for ICECP participants to return to their countries and serve as coaches within their respective sports, while becoming foundation builders for future coaches and athletes, and spreading Olympic spirit.