In the early hours of Sunday, October 20, 2019, athletes, enthusiasts and conscientious people from Trinidad and Tobago and beyond will take part in The UWI Sport and Physical Education Centre’s (SPEC) 16th International Half-Marathon. The 13.1 mile race has become a well-known and loved regional athletic event. Every year a major component of the half-marathon, an initiative of The UWI with 14 years of sponsorship from First Citizen’s, is the raising of funds for a charitable cause. This year is no different.
“We are focusing on the development of youth through the offering of scholarships for talented sports persons to come to UWI,” says Ms Grace Jackson, Director of SPEC.
Ms Jackson, herself an Olympic medal-winning track and field athlete, Jamaican sprint record-holder and Sportswoman of the Year, sees a double benefit to sports scholarships. Not only will they provide new opportunities for high-potential student athletes, they can also help lay the foundation for a new era of sporting achievement at the regional and international level for the society.
The aim, she says, is the “identification of talent, and carrying out an intervention that is going to give that talent wings to grow and represent Trinidad and Tobago and by extension the region.”
 The Half-Marathon sports scholarships initiative is the latest example of The UWI’s goal of fostering sports people and the sport industry itself. In April of this year, UWI Today reported on the St Augustine Campus’ provision of scholarships to ten student athletes (https://sta.uwi.edu/uwitoday/archive/april_2019/article19.asp). Among them are outstanding talents such as national table tennis player Brittany Joseph and up and coming young cricketer Sachin Seecharan.
Ms Jackson believes that this year’s charitable focus has the potential to make a big impact on the lives of elite student athletes. She points specifically to track and field and swimming, where individual athletes can make relatively fast progress:
“Within a year of getting good talent you can turn that talent into preliminary success that can drive other areas. That is without having a huge team.”
Cricket is another area where, even though it is a team sport, individual talent can be easily recognised and cultivated. However, Ms Jackson is quick to point out that the aim is to encourage the development of high quality athletes no matter the sport and she would like to see more support for student sportspeople in under-recognised areas.
Scholarships will be provided to UWI student athletes for three purposes – funding of educational programmes (including the St Augustine Academy of Sport programmes), accommodation and meals.
An estimated 1600 runners are expected to take part in the 2019 Half-Marathon. Starting at 5am, the race goes from the Priority Bus Route in St Augustine to the La Resource Junction in D’Abadie and back to St Augustine. It will also include a 4 x 5k relay, an addition to the half-marathon first introduced in 2018 by Ms Jackson.
“If you don’t want to do the whole half-marathon then put together a team. We think this is a great alternative for companies as well. They might have five half-marathoners but could also have 20 other people that can form four teams and each member runs a 5k,” she says.
The aim is to get many people as involved as possible.
“I have a target for how much we want to bring in that some people might find unrealistic,” Jackson laughs. “But the only way you can work hard and reach your target is to set your target beyond easy. I’d like to reach out to every citizen of T&T, and even people from the region and beyond, to get involved. If you can’t do the full marathon, do the relay. If you can’t do the relay, donate.”
 The SPEC Director asks that people see the possibility of Trinidad and Tobago’s young athletes and look back at the proud moments they experienced when past athletes represented them well in international competition such as the Olympics.
“Those athletes weren’t just given medals,” she says. “It started somewhere. It started with somebody having an interest in their futures and applying what was necessary to make that talent grow. That’s what we are trying to do here.”
To find out more about The UWI SPEC 16th International Half-Marathon (including registration) visit the website at https://sta.uwi.edu/spec/marathon/. For more information on UWI SPEC and contributing to the development of student athletes, please email specinfo@sta.uwi.edu.
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