A quartet of Guyanese athletes will this weekend represent the Golden Arrowhead at the South American Under 23 Championships. While the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) has high hopes for the team’s performance, getting them to the host country, Ecuador, came with a lot of constraints.
AAG President, Aubrey Hutson
In spite of those limitations, Noelex Holder will contest the sprint double, while Daniel Williams is billed for the 200m and 400m races. For the ladies, Joanna Archer will feature in her pet event, the 800m, while Chantoba Bright would be leaping into the long and triple jumps. The team will be coached by Johnny Gravesande and managed by Orin Thomas.
“I see all of them as medalists. They’re very great athletes. Their colleges was able to taper their programme to suit the championships, and I must say this time around we were able to get the schools to give them the necessary time off from studies,” Athletics Association of Guyana President, Aubrey Hutson, told Guyana Times Sport during an exclusive interview.
Noelex Holder
Turning his focus to the disappointment at not being able to send a much large contingent to Guayaquil, Ecuador, Hutson said: “You know, this is far being what we wanted to send, but to get to Ecuador is a logistical nightmare for most of our athletes who don’t have US visas. The ones who are residing in the US and Mr. Noelex Holder are the only athletes that will be attending to meet this time around.”
Hudson further disclosed, “It’s unfortunate. We would have really and truly liked to send a lot more than that. As a matter of fact, we had enough funding to send at least 12 to 15 athletes to those championships, but because of what’s going on in terms of the whole airline industry, for us to get to Ecuador, the easiest part for us was to go to Miami and to come back down to Ecuador, two direct flights.
“Without a US visa, we cannot do that. And you know the US Embassy currently is on shutdown, they’re only dealing with emergency cases. And even if we were trying to make a case for that emergency, we would have had to at least be there two weeks prior”.
Joanna Archer
In relating the unfortunate tale, Hutson added, “We were only able to complete most of the application forms for US visas for athletes last weekend, and for them to be able to travel by this morning, it was really and truly an uphill task. I…have tried personally to get those visas secured in time for them to travel this morning, but I was unfortunately unable to do that.”
In communicating his apologies to those unlucky athletes, who were unable to travel this weekend, Hutson vowed that these issues would be ironed out ahead of a sizeable calendar in 2022.
In singling out promising candidates who would have made their mark in Ecuador, Hutson zeroed in on Stephon Roach, who had met the qualification mark for the event. However, it was the same travel issues that kept the talented jumper away from the October 16-17 event.
Chantoba Bright
“The other unfortunate thing is Stephon Roach, who would have made our entry standard, has accepted a scholarship to Jamaica College in Jamaica. Now, getting him from Kingston to Ecuador was a greater nightmare than anything that we would have faced here. I mean, his ticket costs was heading into US$3500 dollars, which meant flying from Jamaica to Panama, Panama to Ecuador, Ecuador back to Guyana, and then back to Jamaica.”
Daniel Williams
“I want to send a special message to those athletes: ‘We’re going to continue to work with you. Please understand there is a lot more competition coming up early next year. And we are going to try to secure those visas, because we are beginning to realise that, logistically, getting around the world, the best path is to go through the United States of America,” he shared.
One issue that the AAG did not face this time around was funding. As Hutson explained, that came easy, given the importance of the meet.
The AAG President revealed, “So, with the South American U23 coming on board, we’ve communicated to the GOA saying that, ‘Look, this is a meet that will give us a team to Panama, which you’re responsible for’, and the GOA would have committed, you know, quite a large amount of money towards this. I don’t think we will utilise all those funds.”
