NEWS - Results from #1914

Tracey Neville’s England sweep aside Trinidad & Tobago

Pamela Cookey impressed for Tracey Neville's England side. Photograph: Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images A masterful second-half display from England saw them seal a 69-36 win over Trinidad & Tobago in Liverpoolon Monday, clinching a 3-0 series victory in Tracey Neville’s first international commitment as head coach. With a series win already confirmed, a couple of changes were made to the starting line-up with Stacey Francis making her comeback from injury at GD and Pamela Cookey being utilised in a rare WA appearance.England raced out of the blocks and were quick to assert themselves on the game, Sonia Mkoloma clinching a smart early intercept and Helen Housby looking composed in the shooting circle.

The visitors responded well and started to make inroads into the lead, although England remained in relative control with a 14-8 advantage at the end of the opening quarter. No changes were made for the second quarter but it wasn’t to be long before the hosts were forced into making one. Kadeen Corbin was involved in a collision with a Calypso Girls defender and had to be replaced, Rachel Dunn entered the action.

The break in play failed to halt the charge from the ladies in red as they upped the tempo to pull further clear heading into the half-time.At the interval England had moved 31-19 in front. Neville continued to assess her options in the second half as she introduced Natalie Haythornthwaite at WA and brought Sasha Corbin into centre. Cookey reverted to her more familiar role at GA. With the defence continuing to look strong, the attack also started firing. Dunn was looking in imperious form, netting from all over the circle. The combination work in attack was easily breaking through the away defence and England roared clear at 51-26 with a quarter remaining. A brand new defensive pairing was tried for the final 15 minutes as Sam Cook joined Layla Guscoth.Francis was switched to WD as more combinations were tested.Dunn and Cookey took their fine domestic form to the international scene as England took control against an increasingly dejected looking side. The energy refused to drop and despite a last hurrah from the visitors, scoring the final two goals of the encounter, England were able to celebrate a dominant series victory at the final whistle.

Player of the series went to our newest centurion Cookey while Sara Bayman was awarded player of the match following another sublime display.Next up for England is a trip to Belfast for Netball Europe later this week.The squad for this tournament sees a couple of new faces come in as Neville continues to look at various players ahead of naming her final 12 next month that will go on to compete at the Netball World Cup in Australia.

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New sprint sensation eyes World Championships

KINGSTON—Emerging sprint star Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson, says hard work has paid off allowing her to become the world’s leading sprinter following two recent 100 metre wins. Thompson announced herself to the world by speeding to victory in 10.97 seconds at the Jamaica Invitational on Saturday after clocking a world leading 10.92 seconds at the Utech Classics a few weeks ago.

“No, not easy. It’s been months and days of training, so it is the hard work that is paying off now. I started training late September,” said Thompson. “I train with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce; she helps to motivate me a lot”. On Saturday, the 22-year-old Jamaican sprinter recovered from a slow start to lead Commonwealth Games champion Blessing Okagbare of Nigeria and American star Allyson Felix at the half-way mark before pulling away for a comfortable win.

“I was feeling good, I know I could win so I just go out there to execute as best as I could. It wasn’t one of the best starts, but I just didn’t panic, I just went on and executed,” said Thompson who turns 23 next month. “I knew the names in the field were big, so I just didn’t try to get nervous. I just went out there and delivered.”

Thompson has credited her improvement to Stephen Francis, coach of MVP track club. She has now set her sights on a medal at the World Championship, which will be held at the Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing, China, in August. “I see myself on that medal podium in Beijing,” said Thompson.
“All I need to do now is to put in a little more extra work and just do the things I normally do, nothing new, just some more work”.

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TTFA not ready for Pan Am Games

T&T senior women’s team captain Maylee Attin Johnson #9. More than a week ago, The Pan Am Games committee decided upon the eight competing teams that will participate in the football tournament, both men and women. Following the Concacaf qualifying series for the Women’s world cup, I assumed that there will be some enthusiasm among the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) with regards the women players to have them engage in intense competition against teams like Argentina, Columbia and Mexico.

The men’s team is also involved against Uruguay, Paraguay and Mexico for their preliminary round. It has always been my belief that Pan Am Games is probably the strong football competition in the region, simply because it includes countries from both the Concacaf and the Conmebol. Many will be surprised to know that the only medals won by team sports of field hockey and football were in the Pan Am Games. Our hockey team won the silver medal and the footballers won the bronze in 1967 when the Games were staged in Winnipeg, Canada.

Our current teams have been drawn against these top South American countries, a factor which should have sent their training programmes to full throttle in order to prepare for the July encounter. However, on listening to a radio programme some days ago, I was shocked to hear a report through an interview in which the team captain Maylee Attin Johnson, who was terribly disappointed that nothing was done about the women’s programme since the last Ecuador match. No training session, no information as to what the schedule will be and how soon.

One day later, I saw an announcement on the newspaper that the Yugoslavian coach, Vranes Zoran was appointed to coach the Pan Am men’s programme. It is always difficult to understand the operations of the ruling body when it comes to preparing national teams well in advance of big tournaments.

The dates for these games have been in place well over one year, which allows every country to begin their preparations early and make a positive contribution when the teams take the field with National colours. Instead, we are hearing from the women’s captain about an absence of planning or team preparation, plus no organised communication with the secretariat on the issue.

In a style that has now become in this country, the job of head coach for these two teams have never been advertised, which does not allow any of the local coaches to have an opportunity to be interviewed for these positions. Having followed the last Olympic team when they played really well in the final qualifying series for the London 2012 Olympics, I felt that the continuity for preparation would have been given to some of the coaches who have shown good work with the young players over the past few years.

Honestly, it is my humble view that selecting coaches must be preceded by advertising the position. Any other policy is another form of disrespect for the locals. Some months ago, we had been subjected to the choice of an American coach for the women’s squad for the world cup qualifying series. It was probably the biggest secret at the time, especially when the goodly gentleman appointed his son as a replacement for him during the training sessions in Trinidad.

It is also amazing how the country’s clubs do not take issue with these irresponsible decisions, many of which end up with our teams being underprepared for competition. There are three full months before these teams take the field in Canada and they are already late with their team planning and preparations.

No one has spoken about how this programme will be funded. I suppose that they are awaiting a day or two before the teams are ready to leave for the games, before they let the country know where the funding will be available. In this year of the country’s elections, the government will be busy with their campaign trails and who knows whether or not funding will be available for the squads.

I suppose that the presence of the former national footballer Brent Sancho in the seat of Sports Minister in the Ministry of Sport has placed the sport in a comfort zone for financial assistance, even without a budget. There shall still be great expectation that the teams will beat the shirts off their opponents. Despite a sluggish administrative commencement of their plans.

It is time that the administrative duties of the TTFA be better organised, otherwise, we shall never see the type of progress on the football field in the manner that would make us proud.

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Focus on coaches at Michael Johnson workshop

TWENTY-NINE coaches and other individuals involved in sport and the development of local athletes will today conclude their participation in a two-day workshop on concepts and approaches to improving athletic performance. The exercise, a collaboration between the TT Olympic Committee (TTOC) and BPTT, is being run by the US-based Michael Johnson Performance (MJP) organisation, and is taking place at Olympic House in Port of Spain.

Tied to the TTOC’s drive to achieve ten Olympic gold medals by 2024, the workshop, the third of its kind, has as its theme “Perfecting Performance-Striving for Excellence-Faster, Stronger, Higher.”

Drew Coffee, one of two MJP facilitators, is on his third such mission to TT; he explained MJP’s role as one of exposing the participants to new approaches and ideas.

“It’s just about revamping the coaches, enhancing it, not necessarily changing it,” the former Abilene Christian University football player told Newsday. He added that he expects the workshop will serve to “expose a systematic approach to training, and overall, improve athleticism.”

Having done two previous stints in TT in 2014, Coffee observed the approach to preparation and training is not nearly as intense as what is the norm in the US. “Ideally, if you’re talking TT and the Carnival season is approaching, you can see that there’s a high-performance mentality toward getting ready for Carnival,” he argued. “So if we could just use some of that same mentality to, not necessarily train, but drag that into sport, I think that would help reach our goal of ten gold medals by 2024.”

Coffee’s co-facilitator, MJP’s Global Performance Director Lance Walker could not make the trip; yesterday, Walker delivered an online presentation on the qualities a coach ought to possess.

Coffee, a Regeneration and Recovery Specialist, said it was not that MJP had it all figured out. “There are certain things that people are not gonna agree with,” he admitted. “But exposing them to what we deal with is a big thing, because then you can now take that back with you to whatever athletes you’re working with, you can share that with them, with other coaches in the field on the island.”

The participating group includes Gerard Franklin and Kelton Thomas of Tobago, as well as representatives from Volleyball, Swimming, Gymnastics, Hockey, Cycling and Tack and Field, as well as Shayne Cooper, a strength and conditioning coach who underwent three months of training at the MJP Centre. While the workshop ends today, Coffee will remain in TT until June 6, conducting associated work, including practical sessions and spreading the gospel of high-performance culture and training.

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3rd BpTT MJP Workshop Got Underway at Olympic House

The 3^rd BpTT Michael Johnson Performance (MJP) Workshop got underway today at Olympic house, 121 Abercromby Street Port of Spain. Amongst the twenty nine (29) participants are two representatives from Tobago, Gerard Franklin and Kelton Thomas. In addition, Shayne Cooper, strength and conditioning coach who spent three (3) months at the Michael Johnson Performance Centre.

To kick start the workshop, participants received a welcome from TTOC President, Brian Lewis, followed by a lecture by Global Performance Director, Lance Walker via an online conference.

The 2015 workshop theme is “Perfecting Performance – Striving for Excellence – Faster, Higher, Stronger”. Participants are gaining knowledge from performance specialists, Lance Walker & Drew Cuffee.

“A very good reminder of the things we need to change in order for us to be game changers” were the thoughts of Gregory Seale, Fitness Trainer at Movement Mechanics.

Participants in the workshop include:

Nicole Fuentes (TT Gymnastics Federation), Sean Morrison (TTVF), Gerard Franklin (Tobago), Mark Alexis (Tsunami Swim Club), Rheeza Grant (TTVF), Brij Parasnath (Caribbean Sport Specialists), Shurland Hartley (West Penn Athletics), Claire Orr (TTCF), Roger Frontin (TTCF), Edward Marchan (Paralympics), Josiah Morales (Eagles Aquatics), Curtis George (West Penn), Jenelle Nedd (MOS/NAAA), Ronald Rogers (UTT/TTCB), Kiron Simmons (UTT), Angel Ottley (UTT), Reynold Lovell (UTT), Shayne Cooper (NAAA), Rodney Liverpool (TTDF), Terron Abner (Marabella Family Crisis Centre), Jo-Ellen Redhead (MOS), Antonia Burton (NAAA), Gregory Seale (Movement Mechanics), Ashlee Alonso (Movement Mechanics), Courtnee-Mae Clifford (TTVF), Nataki Akii-Bua (Ventures Hockey Club), Pau Voisin (NAAA), Colin Syriac ( Bike Smith Cycling Club) and Kelton Thomas (TTBBFF).

The group present for the workshop consists of various professionals in the field of strength and conditioning, sport medicine, fitness trainers, coaches and athletes.

The high performance workshop will conclude today (12^th May 2015).

Calypso netballers take aim at stopping England today

This country’s “Calypso netballers” will be aiming to end their Tri-Series against host England on a high when they face off in the third and final Test at Echo Arena, Liverpool, from 7.15 pm (2.15 pm TT time) this afternoon.

The world third ranked England has already wrapped up the series against the ninth rated T&T having won the first two matches, 65-42 on Wednesday in Somerset and then, 67-42 on Friday in London.

Following today’s match, both teams will head to Belfast, Northern Ireland for the Netball Europe Ranking Competition and Open Championship, May 14-17.

That tournament will feature the host, Scotland, Wales, England, T&T and fellow guest team South Africa.

The quartet of Gibraltar (#34), Ireland (#28), Malta (#36) and Switzerland (#30) will compete in a rankings round-robin tournament.

The tournament in Belfast will serve as the last real test for T&T ahead of the 14th Netball World Cup in Sydney Australia, from August 7-16

The “Calypso Netballers” who won the world title in 1979 jointly with Australia and New Zealand will come up against the top two teams in the world, host Australia and New Zealand in Pool A as well as Caribbean rivals Barbados in round-robin play in Australia.

Pool B of the 2015 Championship features world third and fourth ranked teams, England and Jamaica as well as Scotland and Samoa, while Malawi, South Africa, Singapore and Sri Lanka comprise Pool C, and the quartet of Fiji, Wales, Uganda and Zambia make up Pool D with the matches carded for the 21,000 seat Allphones Arena (formerly known as the Sydney SuperDome and Acer Arena), Sydney Olympic Park.

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