FORMER national gymnast Thema Williams’s four-year battle for compensation, for the “biased and flawed” decision of the TT Gymnastics Federation to pull her out of the 2016 Olympic Games, came to an end at 2.20 pm on Thursday.

That was when the federation’s bankers, Republic Bank Ltd, delivered a cheque for $223,800.19 – two hours before the deadline of 4 pm, which Justice Frank Seepersad had laid down hours earlier.

On Thursday morning, Seepersad ordered the bank to cut a cheque from the federation’s account at Ellerslie Plaza, Maraval, and deliver it to Williams no later than 4 pm.

He gave the instruction after approving the garnishee order filed by Williams, who was still owed the judgment debt ordered back in 2018.

On November 26, 2018, Seepersad ruled Williams was entitled to $200,000 for loss of endorsements and other opportunities because of the federation's “biased” and flawed decision to withdraw her from representing this country in the 2016 Rio Olympics. She was replaced by Canadian-born alternate Marisa Dick.

The court-ordered compensation was a fraction of what Williams asked for – her claim was for $11 million – but Seepersad ordered $150,000 in exemplary damages and $50,000 for loss of opportunity to earn promotional income.

The sum owed to Williams ballooned to $238,490.90 by virtue of the five per cent interest from the date of judgment.

On October 3, Williams’s attorneys, Darrell Allahar, Reza Ramjohn and Matthew Allahar began the garnishee proceedings against the TTGF and sought a provisional order – which the judge granted – for a temporary freeze on at least one of the federation’s accounts at RBL to cover the judgment debt, interest and costs.

The bank was represented by Tonya Rowley.

The bank had to provide the court with details of the federation’s account at Ellerslie Plaza. It was confirmed the account held $257,308.71.

At an earlier hearing, the TTGF’s attorney Farai Hove Maisasai had asked Seepersad not to finalise the provisional order, as his clients wanted to put in an affidavit to account for the funds in the RBL account. Maisasai said preliminary instructions from the federation were that the State had given the money in the account as funding for a specific purpose and “not to be paid at will.”

In that affidavit, the TTGF’s vice president Suzanne John-Babooram said she was owed $110,449.37 – a loan to the federation – to pay its debts. She said the TTGF held her refund in its account. That money, the TTGF claimed, was owed to the TT Olympic Committee, the Pan American Gymnastics Union, several hotels, airlines, caterers and a local gymnastics club, among others.

An additional sum of $107,614.98 was received from Sport TT for athletes at the 2022 artistic gymnastics championships (senior) in Brazil. A balance of $29,003.52 was left from that sum advanced by Sport TT and Williams’s legal team had agreed not to pursue an order for the unused balance.

Other sums in the account represented donations, the federation said.

It also submitted that if it was mad