74 ZiNG July - September 2009 THE CARIBBEAN GAMES " Competitiveness regionally is naturally strong but sometimes we let those few hundred miles of water separate us and create a divide when really there is not a lot of difference between us, so any event such as this where we can come together as one region in a spirit of commonality, under one fl ag if you like, I will always support," says the man whose three bronze and one silver make him the region's third most prolifi c individual Olympic sprint medallist of all- time. Jackson, who is also an ambassador for the games, feels the contest's competitiveness will help the region as a whole. " I think that we have so much strength in terms of individual countries and individual sports that this will allow us to come together and showcase those talents," she says. " If we come together with these individual strengths and compete, then collectively we can raise the level of those sports across the region. We will be strengthening ourselves. It will highlight areas of weakness and help focus development for the future." BACKGROUND TO THE EVENT The Caribbean Games 2009 were fi ve years in the planning and even longer in conception. " The gestation period has been a long one because we live in an area where you don't have signifi cantly large economies," explains Williams Smith. " You really need a synergy amongst all the stakeholders and we've had that with CANOC ( Caribbean Association of Olympic Committees), the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee and the T& T Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs. They all shared a common view of what could be achieved and carried it forward from an idea within the regional Olympic movement to something tangible." From Trinidad and Tobago the games move to Cuba in 2013 and Jamaica in 2017, on a rolling four- year cycle in the year following each Olympic Games. Though this is a ' mini- Olympics', the idea is to keep the costs distinctly non- Olympic. With that uppermost there will be three core sports ( from a list of fi ve) chosen for each games to ensure continuity but, that withstanding, the sporting disciplines will always be based on the host nation's facilities. Trinidad's lack of an Olympic- sized swimming pool, for instance, accounted for the omission of a swimming event at these games. " We wanted to keep the games manageable; they were never going to be Beijing," says Williams Smith. " The focus in the Caribbean Games is the athletes, not the building of structures. Everything is geared towards the athletes and their comfort and that will not be compromised. Getting the accommodation, transport, catering and volunteers right is what is important - they are essential to the proper functioning of all games." Larry Romany, president of the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee, backed this assertion when he said: " With 1500 athletes from 26 countries coming, as hosts, we in Trinidad and Tobago, are happy to be judged not on the athletes that came, but how well the athletes who came enjoyed the experience." TRINIDAD & TOBAGO LEGACY Not that Trinidad and Tobago missed the opportunity to upgrade its facilities. Infrastruc-tural development alone came with a price tag of TT$ 60 million, but Williams Smith says a lot of this is investment for the future. " The Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs saw that in order to attract world- class events to your country you must have world- class facilities," he says, adding that T& T was making itself very marketable in this regard. " We recently hosted the Cricket World Cup; we have a huge database of experienced, security- validated, volunteers; we have derived synergies from Trinidad's recent hosting of the 5th Summit of the Americas in terms of the security, accreditation and validation process; we have expertise in project management and transport organisation. " This is a legacy we have taken on, that we have enhanced and are leaving. This database of competency will be available to access here in T& T and the wider Caribbean for those hosting events in the future." Another aspect of the games the LOC is emphasising, and which has legacy implications, is that of community outreach. The games were spread across the twin islands with athletics and netball in Port of Spain; boxing in Woodbrook; indoor Richard ' Torpedo' Thompson is one of the stars of Caribbean athletics; Below: Trinidad's Netball team get the support of the Games' mascots ll AFP/ GETTY IMAGES

July - September 2009 ZiNG 75 Top to bottom: Dominican Republic volleyball star Elvis Contreras in action; Tennis medal winners from this year's Youth Sport Festival; moko mascots Jamaica's Simone Forbes, regarded as one of the world's best neball goal attacks, has represented her country at fi ve different sports GETTY IMAGES