Nickolas Day

When you think about Nickolas Day the athlete, immediately coming to mind is Inter-Bank Athletics, RBTT sports day, walking races, thrills and victories even an Aerobic Title of 4 hours and 23 minutes non-stop!

Flamboyant, feisty, self confident (some say over confident) articulate and smart are some of the images that is conjured up.

Nickolas Day personifies the ideal sportsman. Winning his first marathon at age 14, 17^th at Barbados International (2^nd Trinidadian). To date his photo can be seen on the wall of the Guyana Marathon Hall (he was 3^rd) as mentioned by Pamenos Ballantyne. He lives, sleeps, eats and talks his sport. He has a magnetizing personality; he attracts numerous followers to the sport, a born natural leader, often referred to as a ‘Guru’ in the US. Everyone interested in the sport gravitates toward him, to find out more about the sport and how to win or just to be their best possible. Latest information picked up by the Roving Reporter on the internet is that in the US, he finished 6^th at an International-Multi-Day 700 Miler, he won the Retro Mile along the Hudson River in NY and he won the Annual Coney Island 10-Mile Racewalk in 2004.

Every where you see him, he is extolling the virtue of fitness, the virtue of proper technique and training with the kind of authority and sense of humor that some how have listeners riveted to the words that fall from his lips.

At Inter-Bank Athletics, he just flourished… I could never remember him losing a Racewalk or 5K run.

The name Nickolas Day was very well known throughout the financial sector as a great sportsman, feared and admired.

CariFin’s organizing committee would like to pay tribute to this great man, for being the kind of sportsman and person that he is. He did not only found the time to train, but also to help in bringing new ideas to the table as far as organizing and developing the sport of running and walking on a whole and the event of CariFin more specifically.

The roving reporter took the time to seek and acquire the opinion of this great champion. The organizing committee feels strongly about taking a deeper look at the success and persona of the man who ruled the walking events in CariFin as well as who played an important part by winning the Inaugural Cross Country Running Event and continued to strongly contend in this event by placing in the top three onwards.

CRR: What does CariFin mean to you?

ND: On man’s dream and a Nation’s Joy. An embryo that has endured the weathering over its timeframe to adulthood unlike bigger events with much more manpower and financial support that came but had no anti-dote or resilience in terms of survival.

CRR: Do you think we have made a dent/contribution as far our watch word go- "To promote health and fitness within the financial sector"

ND: Without a doubt! This event and its effect augurs well with the concept institutions are attempting to put on stream e.g. making it mandatory that employees affiliate themselves with some type of fitness.

CRR: You had a glorious past in sports. Tell us about it?

ND: I have had my moments and I am still having similar ones. I always think my past could have been better if there was more time between my events e.g. one weekend I had Malta 10K & Royal 5K, another RBTT Sports on Saturday and the TT Clico Marathon the Sunday and then next I had Inter-Bank Games.

CRR: What was your highest aspiration as a sportsman, either in walking or running?

ND: What was still is. By that I mean it is my hope against hope to register a Trinidadian at a World Ranked Event.

CRR: What was your most cherish memories of yourself in CariFin?

ND: Being part of the Committee or collective effort of an event that has facilitated every family member by virtue of a variety of events.

CRR: What is the highlight of your career?

ND: Winning Inter-Bank 5K at 6:15 a.m., arriving at the stadium at 10:00 a.m. as the current Victor Ludorum, reading the Athlete’s Oath at 11:00 a.m. and then leaving at the end of it all as Victor Ludorum because my mother was present.

CRR: In a time when everything is so mechanized and technology is everywhere, what advice would you give people working in the financial industry to gain and maintain their fitness?

ND: Link yourself to any group or person who exercises consistently. Then know that you help them to help you. Don’t bow out by stooping to excuses. In this way you delay the onset of aging with illness.

CRR: You are someone whose popularity and fame in the financial sector doesn’t need any to be professed; you live the life of an athlete and of a champion. Would you say that the Financial Institution have recognized and played their role in promoting and encouraging health and fitness among their staff? And what are some of the things you would say should be done?

ND: Most companies place emphasis on profits via productivity without realizing that profit is the end factor and productivity could best evolve out of a non-sick or non-absent environment. Companies need to ensure that some degree of fitness is engendered into and must be a part of ones’ annual report and inevitably absenteeism or sick time would be minimized.

CRR: What new ideas do you have to improve CariFin?

ND: With proper time management, an invitation race for non-financial/athletic clubs/gyms open 2-lap. (a) attendance would be enhanced (b) notable performances worthy of island wide mention (c) funding could be sourced from outside of the financial sector.