AAG contemplating more meets

…Baird picks up injury, Archibald shows consistency

Devaun “Scooby” Barrington crosses the finish line first in the Open 400m
AAG President Aubrey Hutson

The Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), much like its athletes, is constantly jumping over hurdles in order to get ahead.
Its biggest one yet is getting timely and necessary approval from the country’s National COVID-19 Task Force in order to host track and field meets. Only the second meet of the year was hosted on Sunday last, a stark contrast to the Association’s planned calendar that would have three meets completed by this time.
With the usual suspects standing out in Sunday’s track and field meet, AAG President Aubrey Hutson shared some of the challenges the Association is facing in trying to host enough meets and keeping them all within COVID-19 guidelines.
AAG President Hutson, speaking exclusively with Guyana Times Sport, shared that organising events was an ongoing challenge.

A glimpse of the long jump action

“It is a challenge, we try to satisfy everybody, but you know, this sport is about ensuring that we get as many qualifiers as possible for the Olympics,” he said.
“We continue to prepare as though we’re going to get a positive word from the Government of Guyana. So, if we have to cancel the Saturday before, the Friday before, it’s fine, but we plan every event like it’s going to happen and hope that the Government sees the importance of us having these events and support us,” Hutson stated.
The trick in the trade for the AAG is managing to provide enough meets so as to furnish athletes with adequate opportunities to qualify for the Olympics.
To this end, Hutson shared the AAG mindset when planning meets.
“We have to look at our athletes; we have to look at those that are close to getting to the Olympics and we have to fashion our events to suit them. Not that we’re not taking every athlete into consideration but our focus is primarily on the Emmanuel Archibalds, the Leslain Baird[s] and Devaun Barrington[s],” he revealed.
“Akeem Stewart – yes, he’s here, but not giving us the kind of performance we’d like to see as yet, but outside of that, we’re looking to set our programme in such a way that it can benefit these athletes.”

Emmanuel Archibald was on top in all his events

While disclosing that there have been calls for more meets leading up to the National Seniors, Hutson explained that the main focus was keeping the Association’s events within the COVID-19 guidelines.
“Some of our coaches are calling for another meet before we go into our National Senior Championships in April, because they said that sometimes the distance between this and what I perceive to be the second developmental meet and the next competition way in April is a little too long,” the AAG boss further explained.
He added, “We’re trying to control the people that come into the venue, we’re pleading with our athletes to kindly wear their masks when not competing. And we’re doing as an association, everything we possibly can to ensure the sport is conducted in a safe manner and any event that we hold does not become a super-spreader event for COVID-19.”

Leslain Baird writhes in pain after picking up an injury

Meanwhile on Sunday, Emmanuel Archibald clocked 10.24s and 8.07m to cop the top spots in the 100m and long jump events respectively. Devaun Barrington won the 400m sprint while Akeem Stewart did the same in the 200m. In the female version of the 200m race, Keliza Smith crossed the finish line first. Leslain Baird while surpassing 70m in his first javelin throw, picked up an injury in the second. The severity of his condition was still unknown up to press time. (Jemima Holmes)