Continued investment promised as CARIFTA athletes honoured

The Umana Yana in Kingston, Georgetown was infused with an air of classy, athletic excellence on Saturday night as the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport moved to honour this year’s 23-member CARIFTA team that recently concluded their campaign in Grenada.
The 53rd edition of the games, hosted at the Kirani James Stadium in St George’s, saw Team Guyana coming away with six medals – four gold, one silver and one bronze – for a fifth-place finish at the Games, overall.
The four-gold haul was especially poignant, matching a record-high achievement for the country’s youth track and field athletes.
As such, the group’s efforts were hailed at a reception on Saturday night where continued investment in the sport was assured by Sport Minister Charles Ramson Jr and Minister within the subject ministry, Steven Jacobs.

“This is a public justification that the investment that we’ve been making for the last five years, which has been strategically significant, that it justifies every single dollar that we’ve been spending on you and all the effort and commitment that we’ve been placing in building the relationship that we have,” Ramson Jr shared at the gathering, while promising the continuation of such investment.

The Sport Minister went on to articulate his confidence in the athletes, stating, “I believe in my heart and so does President Ali, that track and field and our athletes, it has the largest potential for giving us global recognition at a global sports stage and I also believe, there is clear evidence to suggest, that there are athletes who competed in this last CARIFTA Games who are potential medal winners at the next Olympics or the Olympics after that.”
On the other hand, Minister Jacobs highlighted how Guyana’s performance at the reginal showpiece over the Easter weekend has caught the attention of pundits around the region, hailing it as a step in the right direction.
Jacobs stated, “They said that the performance by Guyana was remarkable and that they’re seeing improvements. And that is from an outside source, so persons are looking in to what you’re doing as athletes, they’re looking in to what the Administration is doing and they’re looking in to what the Government is doing.”
“When you have those comments from persons that are not associated to us in any way, it’s something that you need to pay attention to. It says we’re moving in the right direction, we’re not there yet, but we’re going in the right direction and we want to continue that,” the cricketer-turned-politician went on to add.
All the athletes gathered were presented with bouquets, and special awards saw Tianna Springer’s mother and Malachi Austin’s Coach being presented with plaques on the athletes’ behalf as they concluded their participation in the CARIFTA Games on a gold-medal winning note.