My name is Ian E. Gooding and I am the president of the Trinidad and Tobago Triathlon Association for the year March 2002-March 2003.

With the help of my hard-working committee which included Diane Henderson VP, Luana Dumas, secretary/treasurer; Marcus Alcala, PRO; Richard de Verteuil; and Noel Nero we have been able to put on six races in Port-of-Spain and one in Sand Fernando, organized by Peter Andrews of Media Sales and Services.

Our major sponsor this year was Lucozade Sport, which generously provided us with $50,000 to help with those events. I must say that we would have had headaches in finding the sponsorship for those races. I sincerely hope they consider coming back with us next year, under our next president.

Other sponsors included Courts (Trinidad) Ltd. and Angostura Bitters.

Ojars’s Bike Inn also provided some prizes for the Kids of Steel races and Mr. Andrews was able to attract some sponsorship for the San Fernando sprint race.

Special mention must go out to Mr. Andrew and his colleagues who threw their support whole-heatedly behind the event this year that was much better organised than last year’s when they were just learning the ropes. My heartfelt thanks to them all.

This year we organised a Kids of Steel series consisting of three races. Competitors were given Lucozade Sport Kids of Steel jerseys and finishing medals for all the races. Competitors were given points for the position they finished in each race and the overall winner was the person with the highest number of points.

The kids wee divided into three age groups and the winners of each group, male and female, were awarded with mountain bikes valued at $850 each. Six bikes, two sponsored by Courts were given out.

The event was covered by the newspapers and was reported on radio and shown on television.

In addition to the KOS, we also executed the sprint triathlon, a duathlon around the savannah and the national triathlon championships.

We also accepted an invitation by the Barbados Triathlon Federation and sent two youngsters, accompanied by National champion Jason Gooding to a weekend training camp in Barbados under a Canadian coach.

We also arranged for Jacob Charran, one of our most promising young triathletes, to a Kids of Steel race in Barbados.

The Association also helped to send two athletes, Jason Gooding and Kelly Mouttet, who live in Perth, Australia, along with manager Ian Gooding, to the Commonwealth Games. It was the first that our local triathletes have ever competed at such a high level.

We are now planning a “Thank You” function for all our sponsors, friends, volunteers, and triathletes early next year.

Talking about volunteers, we printed and distributed 30 “Triathlon Volunteer” jerseys this year. Another first.

This year, too, we were able to purchase three marker buoys for the swim part of our event, obtain two prize distribution podia from Carillion, obtain three bicycle racks courtesy Richard de Verteuil of REALM Marketing, and four water coolers.

Tobago Race
In collaboration with the Ministry of Sport, the Ministry of Tourism, TIDCO, the Hot el Association, and the Tobago House of Assembly, the TTTA will be organsing an International in Tobago next year on May 17/18.

VP Diane Henderson has already been on a site visit (near Mount Irving) to Tobago and has had discussions with the THA and other representatives.

We are hoping to piggyback on the St. Kitts race on May 11/12 and bring the 50 elite triathletes who compete there to Tobago. Locals and amateurs (age-groupers) will race on the Saturday and the elites on the Sunday.

We will need a lot of help on the various committees and about 100 volunteers.

I have met since then with two Ministers, Mr. Orville London and the PS in Tourism and they are very keen on having this race. We are in now preparing a budget for them to present to Cabinet.

Jason Gooding
A few words about Jason Gooding, our national triathlon champion.
With his willing assistance, we were able to built our first website at www.geocities.com/triathlontrinidad where all news and many pictures about our sport can be accessed.

(By the way, our activities have been featured a couple of times on the website of the International Triathlon Union’s regular Updates this year.)

Jason has also raced and retained his Grenada crown this year, raced at the St. Anthony’s Triathlon in Florida and the St. Kitts Triathlon, and is training in Canada. He qualified for the Commonwealth Games with a time of 1:54.

To qualify for these Games, the TTOC, under Larry Romany, set a Beep test—done at the Jean Pierre Complex-- for triathletes of 13 (the highest level of all athletes), and Jason achieved a scored on 15.2 in Trinidad and later 16.2 in Canada.

In spite of suffering with serious sinus problems for several months, which hampered his breathing at the Games, he also competed at the ITU’s Under-23 world championships in Cancun, Mexico, placing 51 out of 68 in the world ion 2:11.47.

To keep the records straight, except for sanctioning his entry to these races, the TTTA has NOT provided him with any financial help, except for his participation at the Commonwealth Games ($2,500).

This is something we regret, especially as he has been willingly providing the TTTA with logos for our jerseys, data for the race flyers, entry and membership forms, and updating our website…free of charge.

Last year he even donated to the TTTA $5,000 to sponsor the KOS race at Maracas. His dedication to the advancement of this sport is something a lot of us can do with a bit of.

Luana Dumas
I must single out Mrs. Luana Dumas, our secretary/treasurer whose tireless devotion to this sport since its earliest days, even though none of her children participate, is commendable to the highest degree. I wish we could afford to pay her as she deserves. But she will have to wait for her reward in Heaven.

Events for 2003
At our post-National Triathlon Championship meeting, we updated our proposed 2003 calendar of races that will feature a four-race Kids of Steel Series including two triathlon races, one duathlon (run/ride/run) around King George V Park, and one Aquathon (run/swim/run) at Chaguaramas.

The proposed dates are:

Kids of Steel #1 Triathlon ......………..........……….March 9
Sprint Triathlon .............................………........… April 13
Tobago Triathlon…………………………...........….. May 17/18
KOS Race #2 - Duathlon at King George V ...........May 24
San Fernando Triathlon …………….….....…..........June 15
National Triathlon Championships………….........…July 20
Pan Am Triathlon Championships………….........…August 1-17
KOS #3 - Aquathon ………………………............…August 24
National Duathlon Championships………......... ..…September 14
KOS #4 - Triathlon……………..………..........…..…October 12

Triathlon Camp
We are also hoping to fit in a week-end Triathlon Camp for beginners and kids in August.

AGM and elections
Annual General Elections for a new committee for the 2003-2004 takes place on March 6, 2002 at the TTOC House, Woodford Street, Newtown.

Finally, I wish to thank you all for your co-operation over last year. I wish this were a paying job. I would be a millionaire.

Anybody willing to take it over is free to do so. You will have my full co-operation.

Sincerely,
Ian Gooding
President