Five athletes represented Saint Lucia at the Rio 2016 Olympics, with two having competed in the women’s high jump competition.

Levern Spencer, the country’s flagbearer at the past three Olympics, finished in sixth place with her team-mate Jeanelle Scheper ending 25th.

Sailor Stephanie Devaux-Lovell finished 29th in the women’s laser radial competition, while swimmer Jordan Augier and men’s 100m sprinter Jahvid Best failed to advance from their heats.

Belrose is confident that the country’s athlete centered approach is starting to pay dividends and has claimed the SLOC will work alongside national federations and coaches to help develop talent for Tokyo 2020.

“Even as we speak now, some of the athletes have already submitted their programmes towards 2020 and I think that is the kind of thing we want,” Belrose said, according to stlucianewsonline.

“We are in a planning cycle now, because as you know the Olympic cycle ends at the end of every four years, so we are coming to that closure of the cycle, but the interest is there.

“Their stated interest and commitment is there and that is the first thing we need to have.

“We need to know that the athletes who have been exposed, who have seen the level of competition, they still want to be part of it.

“We are quite committed and prepared to be working with them, through their federations, to ensure that we bring glory to our county at some point in time.”

Each of the athletes who competed at the Rio 2016 Olympics had their own personal coach attend the Games for the first time.

Belrose believes that by utilising their access to coaching, training and high performance centres, Saint Lucia can continue to progress over the next four years.

She also indicated the SLOC will look to better utilise social media in an effort to keep the public informed of their efforts, with the National Olympic Committee currently not having its own Twitter, Instagram or Facebook page.