Baku Games a guide for Olympic prospects – GOA Boss

– Athletes must be registered for drug testing by March 10

By Romario Samaroo

The 2017 staging of the Baku Games in Azerbaijan in May will see Guyana being represented in six sporting disciplines; and President of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA), Mr. K. A. Juman-Yassin, is hoping that Guyana’s athletes perform well, to enable the GOA to use these games as a guide for selecting athletes to participate in the Olympics of 2020.

Making this disclosure on Tuesday at the GOA’s main location in Kingston, Georgetown, Mr Juman-Yassin also revealed that a total of 24 persons will be heading to the Baku Games in Azerbaijan. These include the Chef-de-mission, Mr. Ramjeet Ramphal.

In the discipline of Swimming, Stephanie Fraser will be coaching Andrew Fowler and Earlando McRae, the swimmers. Mark Scott will be coaching athletes Natrena Hooper, Alita Moore, Winston George and Emanuel Archibald. Clifton Moore will be coaching boxers Desmond “Dynamite” Amsterdam and Joel Williamson. Judo coach Rauol Archer will be in the corner of Joshua Buchanan and Erksine Trotman, as well as Taekwondo duo Jibreel Malik and Adrian Spellen. And the largest contingent, comprising of Table Tennis participants Chelsea Edgill, Trenace Lowe, Natalie Cummings, Christopher Franklin, Nigel Bryan and Joel Alleyne, will be coached by Idi Lewis.

Yassin disclosed, “We are hoping that they are able to do well, so we will be able to have a guide as to their performance coming up to the Olympic Games in 2020”.

Expectation is rife that the contingent would perform exceptionally well, as this country has dominated most of these sporting activities regionally within recent times. Boxing coach Clifton Moore has already pointed out that the boxers have been in action, so their training is up to date. He said that, as a team, they had begun training about a month ago, and had been working on identifying their weaknesses and strengthening some other areas, as they look to see how far they can go in the tournament. He noted that he has had his eyes on them since last year, and their prospects are very good, but he thinks there is still much room for improvement. Moore added that nutrition is an important part of the boxers’ preparation.

Mr. Juman-Yassin highlighted that nutrition is important for all athletes. He has urged all the coaches to prepare a list of nutritional items that the athletes would need, and has promised that the GOA would “endeavour to supply” those, and “would be working on a plan to supply nutrition to all elite athletes.” However, he said this can be achieved only if there is help from the national associations.

In regard to drug testing, Juman-Yassin has indicated that a number of associations have not registered their athletes for out-of-competition drug testing locally and abroad. He has thus declared: “If these athletes are not registered by 10th March, they may find themselves not going to the games.” Accordingly, he has advised the athletes to contact Dr. Karen Pilgrim if they find themselves experiencing difficulty in this regard.