UWI Games kick off at St. Augustine Campus
It’s a packed week for student athletes as the 2015 University of the West Indies (UWI) Games are underway at the St. Augustine Campus’ Sport and Physical Education Centre (SPEC)…
The St. Augustine team took on their regional counterparts Mona from Jamaica, Cave Hill from Barbados and for the first time in the games’ history, the Open Campus, comprised of student athletes based all over the region. Teams will compete for bragging rights in 10 sporting disciplines – table tennis, lawn tennis, swimming, netball, cricket, basketball, football, hockey, track and field and volleyball.
Saturday had a full day of games for both male and female athletes as all 4 teams played table tennis in the Indoor Court. In addition, there was tennis, hockey, volleyball, football, basketball and cricket. Hockey got the athletes off campus to the Tacarigua Hockey Centre.
Swimming and Track and Field Invitational events
The highlight of this year’s games will be the swimming events carded for May 28th. For the first time, St. Augustine has opened the games to notable athletes with Invitationals planned for both disciplines.
Defending swim champion St. Augustine is hopeful to retain their title at this year’s event, which will take place at the Marlin’s Pool in Westmoorings. Noelle Smith, who swims with the Guyana National Team is among the defending team. As for the invitational events, there will be 50M Freestyle, 200M Medley, 100M Back Stroke and 100M Butterfly open to both male and female swimmers.
As for athletics, The UWI Mona team is expected to take the lead in the track and field events on May 28 at the Hasely Crawford Stadium; the events will begin at 9am. Many of the Mona athletes have demonstrated their prowess placing in the top 10 in national events, including the 2015 UWI Track Field Invitational Meet in March. Rushell Clayton, who took gold in this year’s 2015 Penn Relays College Women’s 400-metre hurdles, is also on the team and is expected to compete in three events – 400M, 800M and the 4x400M relay. Other top participants from St. Augustine include Collin Pereira (National Cross Country Team), Darlene Lewis (CAC) and Shaunna Downey (National Disc Thrower, Junior CAC, World Junior). As for the Invitational Events, the National Association of Athletics Administrations of Trinidad and Tobago (NAAA) has brought together a slew of local seeded athletes to compete in 100M and 400M events.
Live Streaming and Social Media
Select activities will be streamed via the games website http://sta.uwi.edu/uwigames/ with start times as follows: Swimming: Sunday 24 May – 9am; Football Finals: Wednesday 27 May – 3pm; Track and Field: Thursday 28 May – 9am; and Closing Ceremony: Thursday 28 May – 7pm.
Follow the games on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheUWIGames and via the hashtag #UWIGames2015.
