As Guyana prepares to host the 2016 edition Inter- Guiana Games (IGG), referred to as the ‘Goodwill Games’ this year, due to the exclusion of French Guiana, the selection committee of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) shortlisted the squad on Tuesday.
Compton Ceasar
After trials on Sunday at the Leonora Track and Field Facility, the selection committee sat on Tuesday to discuss performances and derived a team of 28 athletes; 14 males and 14 females.
The Guyanese contingent will be represented by Tyrell Peters and Compton Caesar in the male 100M and 200M while Kenisha Phillips and Onosha Rogers will go up against Surinamese runners in the 100M while Phillips will pair with Deshawna Skeete for the 200M.
In the trials, Caesar won the boys 200M in a time of 21.57s) while finishing second to Tyrell Peters, who ran 10.57s in the 100M after running 10.61s.
Laurindo Prince and Stayon Wilson will be looking to cop the top honours in the 400M while 400M female winner, Avon Samuels and DeshawnaSkeete will be aiming for the same in the female division.
In the 800M the female division will have Joanna Archer and Kezra Murray while Anfernee Headecker, who won the event in the trials as well as the 1500M and Laurindo Prince will represent the males.
Headecker will team up with Odwin Tudor, in the 1500M and Archer will pair with Shaka Tyrell for the females.
Tyrell will also run the 3000M alongside Tbitha Bowman and Tudor as well as Delroy Leitch will run the 5000M.
Guyana will be represented in the Shot Put, Javelin and Discus by Jamaica Scott and Andriska Mickle in the female division while Alvin George and Jermine Simmons will take the responsibility for the males in the Shot Put and Discus as Tramaine Beckles and Lloyd McCurdy take up the job in the Javelin.
With the events moving onto jumping, High jumpers, Daniel Williams and Osafa Profit will go up for the males and the pair of Irie Cadogan and Tatyanna Blair will be the female division competitors in the High Jump.
For the female long jump and triple jump, Chantoba Bright and Klahni Griffith were selected for as the two jumpers while McCurdy will also jump for the males in the two events, teaming up with Tramaine Browne.
President of the AAG, Aubrey Hutson has expressed his satisfaction of the members selected, noting that all of the athletes were selected based on them excelling at the trials, noting that while some athletes would have performed better earlier in the year, it was the trials that was used as the yard stick to select the team.
He added that it was in the trials that the athletes basically selected themselves by being the top performers.
“Based on the team, I think we have a strong enough team and there I don’t think there is anything stopping us from beating Suriname,” the AAG President said.
Director of Sport, Christopher Jones had earlier indicated that there will be seven different sporting disciplines in which Suriname and Guyana will compete which includes swimming, basketball, table tennis, track and field, badminton, volleyball and for the first time, futsal.
The Games will be played from October 20 to 24 in Guyana.
