Olympians, sprinters Emmanuel Callender and Reyare Thomas, along with 2013 IAAF World Champion 400m hurdler, Jehue Gordon, have had distinguished athletics careers and are now transitioning into coaching, having retired from active competition.

They are among 22 aspiring coaches, who recently completed the World Athletics (formerly IAAF) Online Theoretical Training for Level 1 Coaches, and participated in a practical session on Saturday at Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo, Port-of-Spain.

The session was hosted by the National Association of Athletics Administration of T&T (NAAATT) and was the first of four to be conducted, exposing participants to the more practical elements of coaching.

It allowed the assessment team of IAAF-certified Lecturers - Ian Carter, Nadine Hamid and Dexter Voisin - to observe the ability of the participants to apply the theory in a practical setting.

During Saturday's practical session, the young coaches were exposed to various drills and exercises designed to develop and improve athlete's performance. Although familiar with some of the exercises and drills given their own athletics career, the aspiring coaches were now being required to demonstrate and to interpret athletes' response from a coaching perspective.

Callender was one of them, showing his expertise. He is a member of the men's 4x100m relay team that received gold medals, upgraded from silver, for its performance at the 2008 Beijing Olympics at a Reallocation Ceremony, earlier this year.

At the end of the four planned sessions, assessment reports will be submitted to World Athletics for completion certificates to be issued which the NAAATT will be looking forward to welcoming the new coaches upon their graduation.