media_artricles :: 2015

Achieving success with every stride

Cougars Athletic Club continued its dominance in the juvenile category of track and field by capturing its fifth consecutive Champion Juvenile Club title at this year's National Gas Company/National Association of Athletics Administration's Juvenile Championships in June.

It's an unprecedented achievement for a club that has only been in existence eight years and according to head coach Kelvin Nancoo, a historic one at that.

“This is a remarkable achievement because if you go back through the history books you will see that very few clubs within their first ten years would have won national championships on five occasions.

“When we started this journey we started with a ten-year development plan. We're at the eighth year and we have achieved far greater success than I anticipated.”

Nancoo's words were not those of an over-zealous head coach as the record books would show Cougars' fourth place finish in 2009, its first year of competition, was followed by third position in 2010 and then championships honours in 2011-2015.

He said 2015 was a very exciting year and very successful one as in addition to being crowned champions yet again, the club won every relay event at the Juvenile Games, something never achieved by any other club and also exceeded expectations at the national Junior Championships and Cross Country Championships.

“The first year we went to junior's we got nothing; the next year two medals; this year we brought home seven gold medals. And we performed excellently at the cross country championships where we won six of the ten categories.”

Nancoo was full of praise for junior athlete Ashton Gill.

“When I first saw Ashton he was the worst athlete I had ever seen but what I liked about him was that he understood that to be the best you could be you had to work hard. Over the last five years Ashton has worked assiduously and now he's the best under-20 athlete in the country over 800 metres and 1,500 metres.”

He said Gill leaves home at 4 a.m. and begins training at 4.30 am.

“Success you work for because nobody is going to hand you success.”

Gill also copped his fourth successive “Senior Sportsman of the Year” award at the club.

“We must set a bar for our athletes that's high and let them try to scale it. Don't put it down by their ankles and say they are set, it wouldn't work. If we want our athletes to be the best that they can be then we have to work towards developing them to reach to that level.”

Nancoo said he believes parenting and proper support systems are key to young athletes achieving success. “Talent will get you to the top but character is what is needed to keep you there. We have got to instil in our young athletes the correct and most appropriate mannerisms for them to ensure that they would be a success.”

In addressing his young charges last Wednesday during the club's Award and Dinner ceremony at the VIP Lounge of the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain, Nancoo said, “What I want to tell you is that the journey has just begun because in the next two years we're not only going to be the champion juvenile club, we're going to be the champion junior club and the champion club of Trinidad and Tobago.

“And by 2017 we're going to sweep everything because that is what our vision was and that is what we will do.”

He said as in everything else they are going to have athletes who will fall by the wayside since that happens every year, in every sport, in every club and in every national team but what's important is those that stick it out always succeed.

“Tough times don't last but tough people do.”

Cougars will aim to create history as the first local club to participate in international track and field competition from junior to under-20 level when they line up at the Barbados Relay Fair in February.

Top