media_artricles :: 2014

A champ’s inspiration

Borel tells Cougars athletes to step up

Shake it off and step up.

That was the advice given to the members of Cougars Athletics Club by Central American and Caribbean Games and national women’s shot put champion, Cleopatra Borel, at the club’s 2014 Awards Ceremony at the VIP Lounge of the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain on Wednesday.

Borel, who delivered the feature address, used the parable of a wise old mule to get across to her youthful audience the message of using adversity and seemingly hopeless situations to elevate oneself towards victory.

“There once was a farmer with a mule which one day fell into a well. The farmer felt that the mule was old and wasn’t worth the resources it would require to get him out, so he hired a couple guys to throw dirt into the well in an attempt to bury the mule down there.

“However, the mule being quite wise, said to himself as the dirt fell on his back, let me shake this dirt off and step up. So every time dirt was thrown on his back he shook it off and stepped up.”

Borel said the mule continued to do that until eventually he had risen so high that he was able to step over the wall of the well and onto the ground.

“The mule demonstrated that something that was meant to bury him was actually used to overcome his dire situation and elevate him to glory,” she said, adding that there were many times in her life she felt like the old mule.

“There were times when things didn’t work out as expected and I would cry but I learned how to shake it off and step up.

“At the London Olympics I missed making the final by one and I felt like that was dirt but I shook it off and stepped up. Later, the gold medal winner was disqualified for using a performance enhancing substance and I felt like that was more dirt because she denied me a place in the final, but again, I shook it off and stepped up.”

She said at one point she had even given serious consideration to closing the book on her career as a professional athlete but even that she was able to shake off and step up and today she’s still enjoying competition and wants to continue doing so.

“Whenever you feel like something is burying you in life, whether on or off the track, I want you to be like that old mule and shake it off and step up.

“The moral of the story is do not allow anything to bury you. Whenever you are down keep getting back up and eventually you will rise to the height of success you aspire to,” Borel said.

Head coach Kelvin Nancoo, in his address, told his young charges they had every reason to be proud since they had achieved in the club’s six years in existence what other clubs with longer track records were still dreaming of doing.

Founded in 2008, Cougars have claimed a beaver-trick of national juvenile track and field championships between 2011-2014 after clinching a fourth place finish in their first competitive year in 2009 and a third place finish the following year.

This year the club honoured a Junior Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year for the first time and 2014 Atlantic National Primary Schools Track and Field Championships sprint standouts, Ethan Forde and Caliyah Wallace, were the runaway winners.

Aston Gill took the “Senior Sportsman of the Year” award, making it the third year in succession that the 18-year-old East Mucurapo Secondary School student has claimed the coveted title, while the “Senior Sportswoman of the Year” award went to Jada Barker.

Honour Roll

Junior Sportsman of the Year: Ethan Forde
Junior Sportswoman of the Year: Caliyah Wallace
Senior Sportsman of the Year: Ashton Gill
Senior Sportswoman of the Year: Jada Barker

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