AAG to rectify structural errors at Leonora facility

Postponement of CARIFTA Games due to coronavirus pandemic…

When a contingent from the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) visited Guyana in January 2020, some specific recommendations had been made especially in regard to Guyana’s premier athletics venue, the Leonora Track and Field Facility.

This was as the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) was readying itself to host the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) Games in 2021.
However, while the NACAC and the AAG were putting into place plans in regard to the staging of those Games, the deadly coronavirus was emerging on the world stage. It soon hit the world viciously, as it became a worldwide pandemic that devastated healthcare systems, wreaked havoc with lives, and caused cancellation or postponement of a number of major sporting events; among which are the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and the 2020 CARIFTA Games in Bermuda — one that was much closer to home.
Earlier this week, it was decided that staging of the 50th edition of the CARIFTA Games would be postponed to 2022, with Guyana still being the host country.
One of the aspects that were a grave concern to this publication was the Leonora Track and Field Facility, with which the NACAC team had some issues when they had visited in January.
NACAC General Secretary Keith Joseph, at a press briefing, had noted that the Guyanese facility was up to standard, but a few areas were not quite to the standard that the NACAC team had expected. In this regard, he had singled out the long-jump/triple jump area, and had emphasised the need for more stands to be in place.
“To be honest: with respect to the track itself, it’s not normal for the long jump/ triple jump pit to be where it is. The issue of the warm-up area: it’s not (situated in) the ideal location. We would have preferred it closer to where your call room is, but if it’s there and it can be completed, we’ll work with that. You also don’t have enough of an area for javelin practice, so that would mean having the athletes come out much earlier to do their preparation for the event,” Joseph had explained.
Guyana Times Sport decided to ask President Aubrey Hutson about the AAG’s plans for improving the Leonora facility now that there is a longer timeline to work with.
“Yes,” he said. “We will now have more time to rectify those things.”
However, he disclosed that any work done on the facility, and by extension the hosting of the Games locally, would entail a lot of corporate involvement in the form of sponsorship.
It is important to note the AAG had last year disclosed that approximately Gy$120M would be needed to cover the cost of hosting the event.
“By then, we hope, the political situation would have resolved itself and…we would have seen the back of the COVID-19 pandemic, so that we can really and truly talk to our corporate sponsorship about their involvement in the Games from a realistic standpoint; because they would know exactly what their financial position is, and what they would be able to commit to the Games,” Hutson explained.
He, moreover, declared that with coronavirus restrictions causing shutdown or downscale of many businesses, it is difficult to address the issue at such an early stage.
“Right now it is so shaky that, you know, it’s tough to talk to a sponsor now,” he said. (Jemima Holmes)