Michelle Lee Ahye’s niggling injury shot back into the spotlight yesterday when she was forced to pull up halfway through the ISTAF Berlin — Internationales Stadionfest Berlin women’s 100m event in Germany.

Running out of lane four, Ahye produced an okay start among the eight other competing sprinters.

However, about 40m in, the 2014 Trinidad and Tobago sprint queen began to look in discomfort as she fell behind and was then forced to limp out the remaining distance to the finish line, placing ninth overall in a time of 17.81 seconds.

Winning gold was American Candyce McGrone in 11.11s while Ivorian sprinter, Marie-Josse Ta Lou (11.21s) grabbed silver and McGrone’s compatriot, Barbara Pierre (11.31s), settled for bronze.

Since July of last year, Ahye has been unable to maintain top form since sustaining a hamstring injury at a meet in Lucerne, Switzerland. The runner was forced to pull out of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland and was unable to successfully defend her National women’s sprint title in June this year due to a slight injury even though she still competed.

Ahye has still produced several commendable showings over the past 12 months, with her most recent achievement of women’s 4x100m relay bronze at the World Championships.

Up to press time yesterday, it was still unclear if Ahye was seriously injured or just had a minor problem during the race.

Additionally, the only other TT athlete in IST AF action yesterday was National men’s 110m hurdles record holder, Mikel Thomas, who placed fifth overall in 13.72s.

Vying for honours out of lane four, Thomas had a good start but never seemed to capitalise as he tumbled over all ten hurdles.

Jamaican Andrew Riley (13.40s) captured the gold, followed by Bajan Shane Brathwaite (13.42s), Hungarian Balazs Baji (13.55s) and German Aleander John (13.68s) to complete the top four.

Source

Trinidad and Tobago’s fastest man on two wheels, Njisane Phillip, pedalled to this nation’s first and only medal of the 2015 Elite Pan American Cycling Championships yesterday as he captured Men’s Sprint silver when the curtains fell at the Parque Penalolen Velodrome in Santiago, Chile.

The 24-year old rode valiantly throughout the rounds but was unable to fuel his winning momentum in the gold medal ride-off against hemispheric rival, Colombian Fabian Puerta.

After advancing convincingly out of the opening stages of Sprint competition on Saturday, Phillip lined up along the 250m track for his semi-final meeting against another familiar face, Canadian Hugo Barrette.

Both Phillip and Barrette have a decorated sporting history with the latter most recently pipping the TT cyclist in a sprint final in Ontario, Canada, back in July.

However, Barrette was outdone by the 2012 Olympic Men’s Sprint fourth place rider this time around.

The Canadian sprinter seemed destined to repeat his recent victory after grabbing a hairline win in the opening semi-final ride. In the second ride however, Phillip took to the front with 375m remaining and despite a surge by Barrette in the final 50m, he was unable to trump Phillip, forcing a third and final ride for a shot at gold. Barrette started the third ride with an accelerated pace as he tried to fend off a late rush from Phillip.

The turn of speed from the Trinbagonian was just too much and Phillip was able to nose out Barrette on the line and advance to face Puerta in the championship ride.

In the final, however, the Colombian clinched a narrow win in the first ride to go one up. Phillip was unable to repeat his semi-final heroics in the second ride and had to settle for silver. His runner- up placing now provides the Siparia-bred cyclist with valuable UCI (International Cycling Union) points towards his World Cup and Olympic qualification.

Additionally, endurance rider Varun Maharajh placed seventh overall after completing six gruelling stages of the Men’s Omnium. Following the three opening stages of Omnium competition on Saturday, Maharajh stood in sixth place overall with three events to go. In yesterday’s 1km Time Trial, the TT cyclist placed seventh and then eighth in the Flying Lap to position himself into eighth place overall going into the final event, 40km Points Race.

Maharajh displayed good endurance to finish fourth in the Points Race, compiling an additional 30 points towards his total.

In the end however, his place would see him at seventh overall and finish just a few points short of a podium finish.

His performance here now sees him in line to become TT ’s first ever endurance cyclist at a World Cup.

But, confirmation of his presence at the coming World Cups will only be made when the UCI releases its updated point standings on September 15.

Earlier in the day, Aziza Browne and Jodi Goodridge tried valiantly but couldn’t advance to the semi-final of the Keirin with both finishing fourth in their respective repechage heats.

After press time last night, Maharajh and youngster Akil Campbell were scheduled to become the first national cyclists to compete in the Madison race at an international meet.

The 17-member TT contingent is expected to depart the South American continent today and arrive in Trinidad tomorrow.

Source

Louise Martin's election here as the President of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) capped a productive couple of weeks for British sport administrators, following, as it did, Sebastian Coe beating Sergey Bubka to become head of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in Beijing last month.

In fact, British officials have not held this many positions of influence for probably more than 50 years. Besides Martin and Coe, Sir Craig Reedie is President of the World Anti-Doping Agency, as well as being vice-president of the International Olympic Committee, and Sir Philip Craven heads the International Paralympic Committee.

Brian Cookson and Kate Caithness, meanwhile, are Presidents of the International Cycling Union and World Curling Federation respectively, meaning Britons head three International Federations on the Olympic programme.

Britain's reputation for producing able sports administrators has been largely restored by the success of the last two major events staged in the country. In fact, both Coe and Martin each used their close involvement in the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics and the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow as the launchpads for their respective campaigns, although neither admitted they were planning to stand at the time, of course.

The extensive travelling to meet and greet foreign officials during the build-up to each Games proved pivotal in their eventual success. Martin, the vice-chair of Glasgow 2014, visited 64 Commonwealth countries and territories as the Queen's Baton Relay toured the globe last year, often spending less than 24 hours in each country, although she apparently never missed the opportunity to teach her international friends the dashing white sergeant. Coe, meanwhile, undertook another world tour in the build-up to the final IAAF vote, estimating he travelled 700,000 kilometres.

Of the two elections, Martin's victory was arguably the more unexpected. It is notoriously difficult to unseat a sitting President of an organisation, especially when you are a woman in a man's world.

Prince Imran's fate was probably sealed, we have now come to realise, when at the CGF General Assembly in Glasgow in 2013 he backed a plan to relocate the organisation's headquarters from London to Kuala Lumpur in his home country Malaysia. The crassness of how it was handled shocked the CGF members, who were appalled to hear on the morning of the Assembly that redundancy notices had already been issued to the staff members working in London before they had even had the opportunity to discuss and vote on the proposal.

The plan was defeated as opposition, led by African and Caribbean countries, rallied strongly against the idea. The Commonwealth Games may be dismissed by its critics as a sporting event that celebrates British imperialism but those countries who are part of the CGF are proud of being part of a Movement that has its roots in London and its links with the British monarchy. They did not want those links cut. It was a terrible error of judgement by Prince Imran.

Prince Imran pointed out during his presentation here that the idea to move the headquarters from London was not his alone and had been taken by the CGF Executive Board - of which Martin was a member as the honorary secretary - following a study carried out in 2012 by professional services firm KPMG. They had identified Kuala Lumpur as the ideal place to relocate too after considering a number of factors, including tax efficiency and the costs of overheads. But his refusal to acknowledge that, as President, he should take ultimate responsibility for what happened continued to anger delegates here.

This, coupled with the refusal by Prince Imran,  the second son of the late Tuanku Jaafar, the former monarch of Negeri Sembilan, one of the 13 states of Malaysia, to lobby during the campaign reinforced the belief among many of the Commonwealth Games Associations (CGA) that he was aloof and out of touch with their needs.

It was certainly an eye-opener, having come here from the IAAF election where Member Federations - ranging from the smallest, such as Nauru, to the biggest, like Russia - were lobbied hard and relentlessly right up to the last minute by teams representing Coe and Bubka. In every election, those with a vote like to be made to feel like they are valued, something Prince Imran failed to do spectacularly here. Starting your presentation by apologising for not having shaken everyone's hand is not going to make anyone feel special.

Prince Imran's dislike of "politicking", as he called it, left an open field for Martin, a former swimmer who reached the finals of both the 100 and 200 metres backstroke at the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth. to exploit. Her manifesto, "Unlocking Our Potential", was produced with the help of Vero Communications, the strategic communications agency set-up by former London 2012 head of communications Mike Lee, who had worked so hard on the successful campaigns of Coe and Cookson. She also received assistance from Government agency UK Sport, who are committed to helping Britons get elected into positions of power.

Martin's familiarity with the CGA members and the ease and warmth with which she moved among them, having been secretary of the CGF since 1999, enabled the Scotswoman to hoover up votes like a human Dyson. Even up to a few minutes before the delegates came to cast their votes, it was claimed the election was too close to call. In the end, though, Martin won so easily that one CGA was told the CGF would not be publishing how many votes each candidate received for fear of "humiliating" Prince Imran.

Prince Imran is a good man and was incredibly gracious in his defeat afterwards. It  was painful to watch him, though, having to continue to chair the rest of the Assembly with Martin sat to his left. In the end, he really appeared to have little to offer the CGF apart from a half-hearted plea to be allowed to continue so he could oversee the implementation of "Transformation 2022", the Commonwealth Games' version of Agenda 2020, the roadmap adopted by the International Olympic Committee.

Just like Coe did during the IAAF election, Martin is promising to help provide financial support for the voters who backed her and increase revenues, including recruiting blue-chip companies to sponsor the CGF. It is easy to make these promises but now both must deliver. Martin's task will surely be the harder. At least Coe has a product everyone understands - even if it is one slightly tarnished at the moment.

Martin, however, is trying to sell something few people outside the club understand, even if the statistics are staggering. The Commonwealth covers more than 11,566,870 square miles, almost a quarter of the world land area, spans all the continents and has an estimated population of 2.328 billion, nearly a third of the world population.

On the face of it, you would have thought companies would be queuing up to be associated with an event that reaches so much of the world. The truth is, to most people, the Commonwealth Games' association with colonialism makes it seem an outdated idea. Martin's target will be to make it appear relevant in a changing world, including appealing to cities to host the event so the CGF does not end up with anther situation like it did here when Durban was the only bidder for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

If she can get sponsors and cities dancing to her tune with as much enthusiasm as she got potential voters when she taught them the dashing white sergeant, then she will go down in the history books for being more than the first female President of the CGF.

Source

Sports leaders are often keen to ascribe a higher purpose to the gloriously trivial pursuits to which they owe their positions.

Hence last year’s agreement aimed at strengthening collaboration between the United Nations (UN) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC); hence FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s dogged attempts to use football to help map out a modus vivendi between Israel and Palestine.

Well, guess what guys? – the migrant crisis that has finally surged to the top of Europe’s news agenda hands many of you a golden opportunity to show just how serious sport is about its desire to make the world a better place.

Not in some idealistic, half-glimpsed vision of the future, but now.

No, sport cannot step into the shoes of Government.

As IOC President Thomas Bach said when signing the agreement with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, “Sport can change the world, but it cannot change the world alone.”

It can, however, do two helpful and important things while we wait for bureaucratic levers to grind into action and, perhaps, for Europe’s selfish and complacent immigration policies to be adjusted.

1. It can spawn hope by taking rapid, unilateral steps which, whilst they may constitute little more than gestures when set against the scale of the underlying problem, set a positive example that others may follow.

2. It can set the tone by transmitting messages that make it crystal clear that sports bodies view these poor people unlucky enough to have been born in the wrong place at the wrong time as fellow human beings and members of global society, and not quasi-criminals itching for the chance to undermine western values and living standards.

Bearing this in mind, I am struggling to think of a media release by a sports body more admirable than the one published on Thursday by Bayern Munich, the German football club.

This set out four simple, concrete ways in which the biggest club in the world champion country of the planet’s richest sport will try to help; all seem well thought-through, realistic and, well, helpful.

In summary, Bayern will a) establish a training camp for refugees, with attendees provided with German classes, meals and football kit; b) donate €1 million from a friendly match to refugee support projects; c) arrange for its players to be escorted onto the pitch before its next match against FC Augsburg by refugee children as well as German children; d) arrange via the club’s charity foundation for refugee families to be provided with pre-Christmas events and activities.

“We at FC Bayern consider it our socio-political responsibility to help displaced and needy children, women and men, supporting and assisting them in Germany,” said club chairman, and former German international footballer, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

Bayern’s aid package followed a ground-breaking gesture by another leading German club, Borussia Dortmund, which invited refugees to a match, and by fans, who unfurled “Refugees Welcome” banners.

One of the good things about all this, or so I would argue, is that the givers are benefiting as well as the recipients: the positive publicity Germany is getting for the generous and enlightened attitude towards migrants it is now displaying has countered the negative press it was receiving in many quarters (rightly, in my view) over Greece.

Another sports leader who has been singing from the same song-sheet, albeit in a sport with only a fraction of football’s financial muscle, is Chungwon Choue, President of the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF).

Choue told me in a recent interview that a body called the Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation is close to being set up that will send teams of people to refugee camps to teach not just taekwondo, but “to teach young kids, What is Olympism? What is world peace? And also how to live as a good world citizen.”

Choue traced the origins of the idea back to a conversation with a Jordanian Taekwondo Association official.

“He told me, President, we have two million Syrian refugees in Jordan,” Choue recalled.

“The young kids are there doing nothing.”

To say that events over the month or so since the interview have highlighted the urgency of this type of initiative would be a considerable understatement.

“I do believe all Olympic sports should have a responsibility to contribute to human society,” said Choue, sounding a lot like Rummenigge.

“Now is the time to create these kinds of humanitarian foundations.”

Let’s hope that the appalling scenes many of us in Europe have been made aware of in recent days will prompt plenty more sports bodies to follow the example of Bayern and Borussia.

The continent remains the epicentre of world sports administration.

It is only right that this industry does its bit to help alleviate the world’s problems when they present themselves with such urgency and when a little bit of thought and effort can make a big difference.

Shortly after this blog was written, the IOC announced an emergency $2 million fund aimed at helping refugees.

Source