By KEVIN SUNICH Saturday, August 18 2012

TRINIDAD and Tobago shooting champion Roger Daniel has endorsed the initiative by Petrotrin to invest in the country’s sportsmen and women.

The 2012 Olympian said, “This is great news for athletes, since this does not happen all the time. It is excellent that Petrotrin is getting involved in terms of preparing our athletes. We need corporate T&T to get more involved to help support the athletes.

The preparation journey is not an easy one and it takes a lot of money”, said Dainel. On Wednesday Petrotrin committed to investing $2 million dollars ($2,000,000) which will be in tranches of ($500, 000 ) over the next four years.

Some twenty athletes, eight from track and field, and four each from swimming, cycling and boxing will be given bursaries of $2,000 a month to help with their preparation for the 2016 Olympics.

These athletes, however, must satisfy certain requirements including having a realistic chance of qualifying for 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil by means of having a track record that suggests they are on the verge of greatness.

The athletes must also participate in individual events and they must not be on scholarships, as well as receiving any funding from government.

The 2010 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist said most of the time athletes would have to cut out certain elements of their programme since they did not have enough funding.

“Each athlete has a different programme and with this the financial aspect is also different. This is something that the public do not understand, but when an athlete does not perform how they want, they criticise them.”

Petrotrin’s chairman Lindsay Gillette said it is not about elite funding, but rather about helping young athletes at the grass root level to realise their full potential.

The 2010 Senior Central American and Caribbean (CAC) gold medallist said the 2012 Olympics did not go according to how he planned. “I went into the games with plan A and when I saw that things were not going according to that I pulled out plan B. However, I was unable to get the results I was looking for, but that is life.”

Daniels who placed 35th in the Men’s 50M pistol and 36 in the 10M Air pistol, said while he was disappointed with his performance, he has a lot to take with him from the London Games.

“Despite your ability to perform, you must always stay positive and push hard. Once you lose focus and try to do other wise you will not get your desired results.”

The soldier who was among the T&T Olympians distributing hampers to flood victims on Thursday said he has his eyes set on Rio 2016. “I am going to start my preparation very early for these games. I have to put in the hard work now if I am to accomplish my goal of winning an Olympic medal”, said Daniel.