WITH support from the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, the dreams of national athletes, Anisha Gibbons and Adriel Austin to study and train overseas have become reality.
Gibbons will attend the New Mexico Junior College while Austin heads to Hinds Community College in Mississippi.

Both athletes secured partial scholarships and the Ministry funded the remainder of the financial commitments along with their airfare to the USA.
An emotional Linda Johnny, the mother of Gibbons, expressed immense gratitude for the fulfilment of the promise from the Ministry after their exploits.

“It is like a dream come through. When I came back from CARIFTA in 2019, this was on my mind all of the time. I just wanted to attend a school where I can better myself academically and also improve in athletes.” the country’s female national javelin record holder stated.

Austin’s mother, Joylyn Beaton indicated similar sentiments, revealing this was one of her daughter’s priorities.
Yesterday, Minister Ramson Jr revealed they have provided similar support for scholarships to persons in youth and culture. However, they opted not to publicise them but plan on sharing such details in the future.

“We have not done a lot of the public engagement about this because I don’t like to make it seem we are doing this to give the ministry more credit because I know how important this is to you (athletes),” the minister said.
As regards the other athletes, the minister said, “You can’t have a blanket approach to everyone” and they will continue to have dialogue to meet the individual needs of these outstanding athletes.

Director of Sport, Steve Ninvalle, who was also present for the engagement, said that the ministry – and by extension – the government, “is about keeping promises that they have made. The minister had made a promise and it is a reality now.”

At the recent CARIFTA GAMES, Gibbons, who won gold in the Under-20 Javelin, added to her gold at the U-17 level two years ago. Austin added bronze in the Under-20 800m.