A TRIO of cyclists - Kwesi Browne, Quincy Alexander and Jude Codrington, will represent Trinidad and Tobago at the first leg of the 2014-2015 UCI (International Cycling Union) World Cup series in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The first leg series will be contested on November 8 and 9.

According to a media release from the Trinidad and Tobago Cycling Federation (TTCF), “this World Cup, which acts as the second of ten Olympic qualification events, will see Trinidad and Tobago represented by a strong three-man team who will participate in the events of Keirin, Sprint and Team Sprint.”

Desmond Dickie will serve as coach of the team, while Joel Browne has been appointed as the manager and Kevin Tinto will be the team’s mechanic.

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Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) president Brian Lewis has called for an urgent review of The Ministry of Sport's Elite  Athlete Assistance Programme (EAAP) policy guidelines. Lewis believes if the review isn't conducted Trinidad and Tobago's  Rio 2016 Olympic medal prospects will be compromised.
According to the national Olympic chief the issue of national teams and support for team sport athletes seeking to qualify for Rio 2016 Olympic Games is another area that requires discussion.
Recently the TTOC had seven applications for Elite Athlete Assistance rejected by the Ministry of Sport on the basis that the applications don't meet the EAAP policy guidelines.
Some of the athletes are in the  4 x 100 and 4 x 400 men and women relay pool.
'We can't adopt the attitude that the athlete don't  meet the guidelines and shut the door in our athletes' faces. Athletes who are part of the relay pool and those with the potential to win medals are placed at a disadvantaged. The policy guidelines should be reviewed. " said Lewis.

The IOC was saddened to hear the news that South African Olympian and  former world 800-metre champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi has died at the age of just 34.

"Our sympathies go to his family and friends, and to the whole sports family of the rainbow nation of South Africa. Mbulaeni Mulaudzi was a true Olympian and a fine athlete. A World Champion, he always showed huge commitment to his craft," said the President of the IOC, Thomas Bach. "He proudly represented his new nation around the world, and at home his successes inspired a new generation of young people to take up sport. He will be missed by the Olympic family."

Mulaudzi, who was killed in a car crash on his way to a Johannesburg athletics meeting, was South Africa's flag bearer at the opening ceremony at the 2004 Athens Olympics, where he won silver.

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Michel Platini, President of UEFA, the European football body, has hailed the so-called "Cooperation Arrangement" signed in Brussels with the European Commission, the European Union (EU)'s executive arm, last week as a "historic step forward for European sports policy".

The French footballer turned administrator used a keynote speech to EU Sports Ministers in Rome to pledge continued collaboration with the EU on matters of mutual interest, while asking for reciprocal support to ensure that sport would be based on values of "honesty, sustainability and solidarity" in future.

"I am counting on your active support because we can achieve more together than alone and because progress for one means progress for everyone," he told Ministers.

In the course of a scathing attack on the practice of third-party ownership (TPO) of the economic rights of footballers, Platini called for a "tailor-made legal framework" and said there was "no place" for TPO of players in European sport.

"If we fail to deal with this properly it will not just be a defeat for UEFA, nor even just for the sports movement, but for all Europe," he argued.

On his own body's Financial Fair Play (FFP) initiative, Platini claimed that "previously unthinkable" reforms had been adopted and implemented.

"Aggregate losses among European clubs, which had reached €1.7 billion (£1.3 billion/$2.2 billion) in 2011, fell to €800 million ($1billion/£631 million) in 2013, a drop of more than 50 per cent in less than two years," he said.

"Thanks to Financial Fair Play, we are therefore heading in the right direction."

Platini's comments on TPO come less than a month after Sepp Blatter, his counterpart at FIFA, announced that the world governing body had decided to ban TPO after a transitional period.

Other leading football figures have, however, either expressed opposition to an outright ban or underlined the difficulty of stopping it.

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