Landis: ‘We are all Champions’

IN his remarks at the Closing Ceremony of the University of the West Indies Inter-Campus Games, Deputy Principal and Chair of the UWI Games 2017 Local and Regional Organising Committees, Professor Clive Landis, informed the gathering that they were all champions, championing the cause of UWI.

Speaking in front of his peers, the student athletes from all four Campuses and the media, Landis lauded the efforts of all those involved in making the 2017 Games a success. He made mention of a story he had heard from the outreach sessions where the athletes were visited by some of the local schools that UWI had been championing.

“A staff member came and told me that she knew one of the children who had come to the outreach from one of the neighbouring schools. She said that the child now has a new hero and she has a picture with her hero, who is a lady volleyball tutor from Trinidad who came to the outreach.”

It was indeed what the outreach was about, with the champions representing the University of the West Indies. He went on to say that UWI was unique and that no other university could boast of having a games where the branches of the university all came together from different islands to compete. The University of the West Indies is truly one of a kind where students travel to either the Mona Campus, Cave Hill Campus, St. Augustine Campus or Open Campus to study, but then also compete for that campus against sometimes their home campus at the games.

He stressed the point of being under scrutiny due to the large amount of press coverage from all the islands, which have citizens enrolled in the institution. He said it was also a positive with the examples set by the student athletes in championing the cause and bringing a unity to the games among the four campuses.

Head of the Academy of Sport at the UWI Cave Hill Campus, Amanda Reifer, also made remarks at the ceremony. Reifer was still immersed in the excitement of the games and spoke of the thrills, tears and nail-biting matches, which were a part of this year’s contribution to the legacy of the UWI Games. The games were more than just sports, but also a beacon of what the institution stood for – the joys, the triumphs, the competitiveness, camaraderie and sportsmanship. She asked the patrons to take time out to reflect on the games.

“I ask us to all reflect on the significance and magnitude of an event such as this. Where do we see the Games evolving? I am sure we all have our ideas, but what is clear to me is that all the sports academies take this event very seriously.”

The Head of Cave Hill’s Sport Academy elaborated further and said the rivalry was fierce, but the event was more than that. It was an event that allowed the campuses to measure the success of the various sporting programms. This was not just in relation to the athletes’ performances, but also the administrative side of things and the coaching techniques. The evaluation of the games in its entirety is and continues to be critical and Reifer was proud of the success of the games this year. Mona Campus won the title, but the University of the West Indies was the real winner. (AS)