Born Special World Olympic Dreams

securing even more work. Time for World Olympic Dreams. We

meet an athlete from Trinidad & Gentlemen, gentlemen, let's get

ready to start the race. It is 9am at Queen's Park Savannah in Port of

Spain. Before the heat of the day begins

in earnest, pupils from Belmont Boys School are getting ready for a

five-kilometre run. They take these things seriously around here.

Belmont isn't the roughest part of the city but, away from the

watchful eye of dedicated teachers, there are fears for the young men

of Trinidad. There has been a crime explosion in the last 10 years.

This is a young man who may have a role in changing that.

Good luck to all of you. This is where it starts. Hopefully you will

make the national team and then make it to the bigger stage of the

World Championships and the Olympics. Good luck to all of you

guys. Jehue Gordon hopes to be competing

in the 400m hurdles at the London Olympics. Some say he was born

special. His life has seen him overcome hurdles both on and off

the track. I know a lot of people who have died already. Some in

shoot-outs, some people I know are in jail.

I feel like a proud mother bear. Especially when you consider where

he has come from. I feel very proud. These children need someone to look

up to. We need to get more athletes coming out of here.

Just before the start of Lent, Port of Spain comes alive. The

definition of the carnival is 'farewell to flesh'. These days,

the original meaning seems to have slipped a little. The imagery is

drawn from Trinidad's chequered past. Creole plantation owners,

slavery, protest at colonial rule. It is a chance for a nation to let

its hair down, party like there's no tomorrow and forget about their

troubles. This beach is the epitome of a tropical paradise. Any self-

respecting sports reporter would expect to find himself pitching up

here sooner or later. This series is following 26 athletes from all

around the world. We are going to places like Iraq and Afghanistan. A

beach, a warm wind and a cold beer is new territory for us. Trinidad

is in many ways classic Caribbean. But there is more to this country.

It is a nation that is passionate about sport. Cricket and football

vie with each other for the most favoured status. Being the

Caribbean, they are pretty good at running, too. Just 19, Jehue Gordon

is one of Trinidad and Tobago's brightest hopes for the next

Olympics in London. He is a 400 metre hurdler. An operation on his

foot recently means he is training gently at the moment.

I have had some amazing things - a lot of crowd support, it gives me a

lot of pleasure. People will do anything to get a gold medal. I am

not just happy with making the final, I want to get that gold

medal. I want to be the best in the world. Getting that gold medal

would be a big inspiration. If he achieves that goal, it will

be due in no small part to both his physical and spiritual strength. He

believes that it is his faith in God that has helped him get where

he is today. It was interesting this morning,

talking about Jesus Christ, seeking him in times of need. No humans can

save us, only God can save us. Do you think there is a tie between

sport and religion? I think God has a big role to play.

If you are injured or things are not going well or as you expect

them to be, he is the one that can keep you on the righteous path.

In order to get a better idea where he grew up, we decide to go for a

Sunday drive. In these parts, that involves a Jeep and a driver with a

head for heights. The hills just north of the capital are where

Jehue Gordon grew up. He spends his time on a more level playing field

these days. But these hills are important to him. All of the roads

are on a slope around here. It is a good place to train. It gives you

the strength that you really need. Every time you come out of the

house, you have got to go either up a steep slope or down.

Yes. It is really working on the legs.

That is all you have ever known. From whenever you could walk, it

has been on a slope. Yes. Going up the hill, down the

hill, up the stairs, down the stairs. I think it has really

helped. I do a lot of hill work. Jehue Gordon's first experience of

an international sports event was at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. He

was only there as a spectator but it instilled in him a desire to

push himself to the limit. When he came home from China, something

happened here that made his sports career even more important.

I was in the house when everything was destroyed. There was a major

landslide. It was actually in the room that I was in. It came into

the room. It was scary at that point. I could have lost my life.

After that, the next week, a lady was killed by a landslide. I was

truly grateful to survive. I decided that I had to get a way out

of here. I trained hard and my family supported me. I knew at that

point that I was supposed to be good at running to help my family

out of that position. It has not been a bad start. After

bursting onto the scene with a 4th place at the World Championships in

Berlin when he was 16, he got gold in the World Youth Championships in

Canada last year. Success in sport is a distraction

that Trinidad could do with these days. The country has, as yet,

failed to cash in on its huge natural resources. Areas of the

capital have become a breeding ground for crime.

Gang warfare, drug trafficking and a gun culture - a life that many

young men Jehue Gordon's age are drawn into.

Some of my friends have died already.

In violence? In crime. Some are in jail. Some

were even younger than me. It is sad to see.

Why do you think that affects Trinidad or these people the way

that it does? To tell you the truth, people see

Trinidad as a really small country. So much crime is very demotivating.

I think they need the right foundation because the foundation

is really not stable enough at home, especially when they don't have the

right support group around them. Sometimes the parents are into

drugs. What else can the kids do apart from drugs if they don't have

somebody else there have to tell them that this is not what is

recommended of you or that is not what you should be doing? One

parent telling them one thing and It is sobering to find out the

talent in the young men growing up around him. There has been a 400 %

rise in the murder rate over the past 30 years, some 30 murders per

100,000 people here make it one of the highest rates in the world. The

Port of Spain rivals Kingston in Jamaica and Johannesburg as one of

the most dangerous places to live. So what has kept him on the

straight and narrow? A visit to his school should give us some clues.

Just like that other Caribbean running sensation Usain Bolt,

Jehue's first sporting love was cricket. He first picked up a bat

here. What did his first the teacher think of him as a sportsman

from the start? Yes, what I was afraid of though was his stature.

He was very slim. When he said, Miss I will do it, like run the 800

metres, I doubted myself and I doubted him at the time. But I

thought, do not judge a book by its cover. And after that, I knew that

he was on his way. By the time he got to Belmont Boys', he had

already discovered that he had a talent for running fast. It reminds

me of my first day of school and coming home. It was here that a

teacher first saw his potential for running over hurdles. Belmont Boys'

is a model school and the teacher has a deep passion for their pupils.

How does seeing an old boy doing so well make her feel? Proud. I look

at how he leaps over those hurdles. And I am envious. I wish that I had

that kind of talent. He has come such a long way from before, when

he was just a boy trying to find his way. And now he is really

confident. So I am proud of that and I am proud as how he has

developed as a person. You do not need to go far to find what she is

talking about. Belmont is a suburb known for its crime rate. I met up

with a Trinidad & Tobago football legend, and when you're with a

local hero, you need to try the local food. Now I have learned

something. Now, how do you eat it? That is nice. It is very tasty.

has made it to the top in his sport and he knows just how lonely that

journey can be for athletes in Trinidad. We like to see people do

well, before we get on the bandwagon and give them support,

which is a shame. Hopefully, you should get that support. How is it

after your sports career? You are a role model for everybody. It is

tremendous. We do not have enough role models in this country. It is

good to come back and trying to do things that will uplift the

community. It is good from that perspective. But if we take time to

nurture some of the athletes before, we would have a lot more role

models. Let's hope that our young hurdler is up to the job, he is

still only a teenager after role. When you are here in Trinidad, you

obviously have your studies and the university and your training. What

else does life bring? It involves sleeping enough, a lot. I eat. I

sleep, I train and then it is straight back to sleep. I love to

play video games apart from that, in my free time I like to see my

friends and go to the movies sometimes. And that is basically it.

And from now until whatever Olympics in the future that he

decides will be his last, it is day after day, week after week, of this.

When you are actually engaged in sports, you had a cold and they

look after you and you have members of the team that will guide you and

keep you up-to-date and say that you need to do this. It gives you

some sort of security. You have your whole family to watch you. And

it is like a way that you can do it, because sometimes you have the

opportunity and you have the guidance to elevate yourself in

this society and make a better person of yourself. His coaches

think that he is getting that right. He has that ability to work hard.

He is extremely talented. And he does not complain, he never

complains. His studies. He just does what has to be done to be a

champion. This is in many ways, a country that has a lot to sing

about. Stunning scenery, rich natural resources and their laid-

back approach to life. But I sense that they could do with something,

or someone, you knew how to inspire them. Back home in Maraval, Jehue

pops back into the local barber's for a haircut. It is more a place

for the local kids to gather and watch their Premiership heroes than

have their hair cut. Trinidad & Tobago has only won one gold

Olympic gold medal. And he has had the national stadium named after

him. If only they knew that they had a local hero on their doorstep,

they may look up to him. Does he inspire you personally on a day-to-

day basis? Yes. Sometimes, there are pressures of work and studies

and they get to you. But when I want to give up, I look at him. I

keep the scraps from the newspapers. And I say, you have made a

difference in somebody's life. Do not give up. His is a tropical

paradox. He grew up in a place where the climate and geography can

bring out the athletic best in any young man. But it is a country

where it is easy to get lost along the way. Do you think that Trinidad

needs heroes? Yes I think that we need a lot of heroes. And sometimes

people do not have anybody to talk to or to look up to, because we're

seeing wrong things going on in the community. So if you can really

have that guidance by somebody else, somebody who can relate to it, it

is really inspiring for some people to see, I can sit around and talk

to this person and they really understand what they are going

through and you can assure them that you do not have to limit

yourself because of the situation that you are in. You can grow up to

do things. Most people who are into sports are actually people that

came out of the ghetto, and they are some of the best people today

in society. Being in Trinidad, you actually see the contrast of this

country. It is like a beach country. It is like a beach

country. It is like a beach paradise. There are severe issues,

poverty and gains. -- gangs. And Jehue has some of those contracts

going on as well. He feels under pressure to be a role model. One of

the main driving forces of his sports career is not about the

medals and not about the individual success, it is about taking his

family away from that house which is from the hillside. There was a