A 12-member track and field team departed these shores on Wednesday to represented Guyana at this year’s CARIFTA Games which will be held in Curacao from April 16-17 at the Ergilio Hato Stadium and team management has expressed confidence of the athletes standing on the medal podium.
Manager, Yvonne October feels the team which was encamped at the National
President of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), Aubrey Hutson (extreme right) was also on hand to bid the team farewell
Gymnasium have learnt how to support each other which is vital as they head into the games.
“The athletes responded very well, we encamped them because we want them to get to know each other and we want them to have that camaraderie they need to support each other and it was also used to iron out and little issues the athletes may have in their technique,” October explained.
Despite team Guyana’s numbers in comparison to Jamaica’s 84, Trinidad’s 51, Bahamas 65 and Barbados’ 28, team manager is still buoyed by the chances of the team since they would have set high qualification standards.
“I am very confident, and reason is because we set out standards way above what they [CARIFTA] were asking for and they all qualified for the games so they should be able to do; they are pumping and ready to go,” the Manager contended.
This year’s team comprises only athletes who qualified in at least one event at the Games. However, team coach Johnny Gravesande revealed that some of the athletes will be allowed to also participate in events that they did not qualify for.
Linden’s Chantoba Bright, who is a 2016 CARIFTA silver medallist, will be the only athlete on the team doing three events- the long, triple and high jumps.
Five athletes on the team will contest two events; namely Natricia Hooper (400 and triple jump Under-20), Anferenee Headecker (800 and 1500m Under-20), Tremaine Browne (long and triple jump Under-18), Kenisha Phillips (100 and 200 Under-18) and Daniel Williams (200 and high jump Under-18).
The remaining six will contest one event and those athletes are Claudrice McKoy (1500m Under-18), Compton Caesar (200m Under-20), Onasha Rogers (100m Under-18), Samuel Lynch (800 Under-20), Matthew McKenzie (5000m Under-20) and Tarique Boyle (high jump Under-20).
“I feel good; I know I’m well prepared, I know I’ve covered more distance than last year, so I’m going into the competition with confidence and a willingness to work harder than last year,” the jumper told media operatives at the National Gymnasium.
Similarly, Lynch, who had an impressive outing at last year’s National School’s Championship’s is more confident that he can reap the necessary rewards.
“I’m more confident that last year because last year I did a qualifying time of 1:57.00 and this year I did 1:54.00 so I know to myself I will be on the podium; I have been putting much more work than last year, been training twice a day,” the runner stated.
Meanwhile, Director of Sport Christopher Jones who was also present to give the team well wishes told this publication that those athletes who excel will be placed into an elite camp as part of the National Sports Commission (NSC) Data Base Programme.
Jones explained, “Based on the results we will now receive from these championships we will be able to put aside those that medal in a different category; we have started the elite programme, which will be drawn out of the School Nationals so when they go to these games another group will be drawn out of that to form an elite group of which funding and resources will be given to ensure that they can take Guyana even further than that.”
