The handing over of the cheque was done by members of the tournament organising committee at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Port-of- Spain, on Wednesday.
Attending the ceremony was special advisor to the Ministry of Sport Caryl Kellar, chairman of the tournament committee McDonald Padmore, secretary treasurer Ian Cyrus, coordinator Jeremy Lezama and trustee Elton Peters.
Receiving the runner-up cheque of $100,000 was Hassam Maharaj of St Joseph.
Brad Augustus of D’Abadie/ O’Meara took the $75,000 cheque for third place and coming in fourth was Shivohn Noreiga’s team from Arouca/ Maloney, who collected their cheque of $50,000.
In his opening remarks, Cyrus expressed his appreciation to Ministry of Sport, the 41 constituencies and 204 teams who participated in the tournament. He added that it was very tough for the committee to get sponsors on board their crime prevention campaign.
“I sincerely want to thank Minister Anil Roberts and the Ministry of Sport for getting involved an sponsoring this programme. We continuously tried to get more corporate sponsors on board but were shocked with the reaction we got from some businesses. This is something for the youth of Trinidad and Tobago, I thought we all wanted to rid this country of crime,” stated Cyrus.
Cyrus mentioned that the committee had major plans and new ideas for the hosting of next year’s tournament in April. He wanted to get the support of the public as they go about ridding this country of criminal elements through sport.
“We have other intentions for this programme. We are not going to just do football, from next year we would like to have an inter-constituency basketball tournament, also set up a data base for all the players who have participated. We also intend to approach the Ministry of Sport and Ministry of Education to include under-privileged children in our programme to further their physical capabilities,” explained Cyrus.
Cyrus and Padmore agreed that the competition promoted good camaraderie, unity and interaction with the youth. They added that the contest was clean and incident-free.
Padmore urged the youths to use their money wisely an invest it into something they could gain from in the future. He added that too many youths were spending their little money on material things and wasting their lives away for vanity.
The committee revealed that they intend to have a grand prize of $250,000 in next year’s tournament, once the right sponsors get on board.
Cyrus and Padmore again sent special thanks to all those involved in the successful hosting of the tournament. He acknowledged the referees and former national players Angus Eve and Arnold Dwarika for their input in such an influential and uplifting tournament.