SHATTERING world records and winning multiple medals at the Paralympic Games isn't nearly enough to satisfy TT field sensation, Akeem Stewart.
Although Stewart will not be part of this year's Paralympics, owing to insufficient preparation, the 28-year-old recently gave fans insight into his ambitions, saying his ultimate goals transcend a repeat of his performances at subsequent Paralympic Games. They are to represent this country in field events at future Summer Olympics and World Championships.
Stewart was speaking during a recent instalment of a series of motivational webinars titled There is Hope, hosted by the TT Football Association.
The series has also featured retired TT sports icons, including Brian Lara and Kenwyne Jones, Olympic-bound sailor Andrew Lewis, TT women's senior football team stand-out Karyn Forbes, and others, all of whom offered participants details into the struggles leading to their eventual successes.
A question was posed by a participant who asked Stewart about his endgame in track and field.
'My (ultimate) goal is to qualify for the Olympic Games,' he said. 'To qualify for the Olympic Games will be a big task but it's something I want to do. So I'll work towards that until I accomplish that and if I accomplish it, I've accomplished everything (I targeted) in the sport.'
At just 28, Stewart boasts a sterling record of sporting achievements, including a pair of gold medals at the World Para Athletics Championships 2017 in London, where he set a world record in the men's javelin (F44 classification), launching the spear some 57.61m, ahead of Iceland's Helgi Sweinsson, who would have claimed a championship record otherwise, with a 56.74m second-place effort.
Incredibly, Stewart doubled his success in the men's shot put (F44), claiming gold and with a mammoth new world record distance of 19.08m, leaving Slovakian Adrian Matusik for the runner-up sort with a distance of 3.09m.
The International Paralympic Committee defines classifications F61-64 to refer to 'lower limb/s competing with prosthesis affected by limb deficiency and leg length difference.'
Stewart, dominant in his class and developing still, says his end-gold 'as difficult as it will be' is to qualify for and represent TT at the Summer Olympics and World Championships, where competition is stiffer.
It may not come to shock his 'able-bodied' team TTO colleagues, whom he trains with while para-athletics is off-season. In fact, Stewart said he trains throughout two separate seasons and often gets about one month's rest.
He said he surrounds himself with TTO athletes, namely a personal friend and fellow field athlete in Keshorn Walcott, as well as Cleopatra Borel, who he said always supported him and the younger, developing athletes.
Having taken up field events at 14, remarkably late for the sport, Stewart himself is often described by coaches and admirers as having 'unlimited' potential, boasting exceptional strength and an ability to quickly adapt to new techniques.
Stewart told the audience, 'Track a
