media_artricles :: 2014

New Irwin Park to include 400-metre athletics track

Ian Morris’ coach not thrilled about grass surface

This was confirmed yesterday by Adrian Raymond, acting CEO of The Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SporTT). He told the Express that when the Siparia sports facility is completed, it will accommodate cycling, cricket, football and athletics.

“It would not be a synthetic running track,” Raymond explained, “but provisions are being made for markings for a grass track. It will be a 400-metre track with six to eight lanes, based on what can be accommodated.”

The acting CEO said T&T is well served, with synthetic tracks at five stadia--”Hasely Crawford” in Port of Spain, “Larry Gomes” in Arima, “Ato Boldon” in Couva, “Manny Ramjohn” in Marabella, and “Dwight Yorke” in Bacolet, Tobago.

“Given the physical space available at Irwin Park, the budget, and wanting maximum use of the facility, a grass track is value for money. Given the use of space and what it would have cost, a synthetic track would have been at the expense of cricket and football. It would have compromised use of the practical space, and then there’s the cost of putting down a track and its maintenance.

“When Irwin Park is completed,” the acting CEO explained, “it will be handed back to the regional corporation. Upkeep of that sort of track would have involved hiring someone to maintain it. Maintenance of a grass track allows for more efficient use of financial resources, and is more financially viable for a regional corporation.

“The Sports Company,” he continued, “does not determine how resources are allocated. We’re an implementation agency, but we do our best to accommodate all stakeholders within a community. We’re never going to be able to please everybody.”

Raymond said schools in the area will benefit from the Irwin Park upgrade.

“A number of schools will have their sports days there.

“Overall,” he continued, “everything within the facility will be upgraded. There has always been an embankment or a cycling track there. What we do is very comprehensive upgrades, and where we can we introduce a couple new features once it does not compromise what has been there.”

Raymond said the Irwin Park upgrade will be completed by July/August next year.

Oswald Joseph, the man who coached one of Siparia’s most famous sons, quartermiler Ian “Frinty” Morris, is keen to start coaching again at Irwin Park.

“I have been postponing the re-opening of the club. People have been coming to me and Ian, asking when. A lady approached me when her daughter was seven or eight. The child is now 15, and the mother told me I wasted her daughter’s skill.”

Joseph told the Express that when Morris started running in the 1980s, the Irwin Park field was level but had no lane markings.

“I coached Falcons at Irwin Park in spite of the nature of the ground. Because of ‘Frinty’, we tried it. We would come there and mark something. It was difficult but it worked.”

Morris went on to reach the men’s 400 metres final at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. He finished seventh. Four years later, at the Barcelona Olympics, the T&T athlete was fourth in the 400m final in 44.25 seconds, missing out on the bronze medal by one-hundredth of a second. In the semifinal round, Morris had produced a 44.21 run, which still stands as the national record.

With athletics guaranteed a lodging at the new Irwin Park facility, Joseph can now resume his coaching career. He was not thrilled, however, on hearing that the facility will not have a synthetic running surface.

“A retrograde step. If you’re doing something now, in this modern age, you need to put down something new. But it’s better than nothing. I’m not feeling as bad. I can still do something. I won’t deprive the children.”

But whatever the surface at Irwin Park, Joseph’s most famous charge, Ian “Frinty” Morris, who is now a Ministry of Sport coach, will have the opportunity to pursue his dream of producing an Olympian of his own.

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