Minister Garcia launches Secondary Schools National Track and Field Championships

TRINIDAD:  April 21, 2016: The Honourable Anthony Garcia, Minister of Education, is assuring hundreds of secondary school track and field athletes that his Ministry will continue to work diligently to provide as many opportunities as possible, through sports, to enable them to realise their true potential. He said, “We at the Ministry of Education, stand committed to providing opportunities, so that our students can develop to their full potential. Our aim, in the Ministry, is to provide excellence in education; and track and field must form an integral part of the educational offerings that we have at our Ministry.”
 
Minister Garcia was speaking at the official launch of the two day Annual Secondary Schools National Track and Field Championships 2016 which is being held on Wednesday 20^th and Thursday 21^st, April, 2016 at the Hasely Crawford Stadium. The event is hosted jointly by the Ministry of Education and The Secondary Schools National Track and Field Association.
 
Minister Garcia also expressed confidence that secondary school athletes will excel in track and field events at the Championships, which he said bodes well for the nation’s long term Olympic goal of winning ten gold medals in the 2024 Olympics, “I am sure that excellence will prevail in everything that you do. It is important that we focus and we have uppermost in our minds, on performance and what our performance will mean to all of us because, as you know, our goal is by the 2024 Olympics, that Trinidad and Tobago athletes would be able to bring home, at least ten gold medals. And today, this event could be deemed as the start of that journey and I’m sure that when 2014 meets us, we will be able to achieve these goals. I’m certain about that.”
 
Minister Garcia further said he believed that the future of track and field in the country is bright and that all of the athletes participating in the Games are winners. Over one hundred (100) schools and over three hundred (300) athletes will be participating in the Championships.