Familiarity is best to develop new athletics talent

-says AAG President Aubrey Hutson

A number of teenage athletes are beginning to rival their older counterparts in performance, and Aubrey Hutson, President of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), has had to consider the development trajectory of these teenagers.
For instance, Ezekiel Newton and Keliza Smith are only two of the names now becoming staples in the world of track and field at both the junior and senior levels. At the 2022 National Schools’ Championships, both athletes shattered the 100M records in their respective categories. In Newton’s case, he reset the Under-17 record to 10.62s, and in Smith’s case, she clocked 12.03s, as both athletes inch closer to their respective sub-11 and sub-10 dreams.

Quizzed about what the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) can do to get these athletes and others closer to their goal, AAG President Aubrey Hutson explained that leaving their current coaches to their work might be best for now.
“…he was able to go to the South American Championships, and even though he showed some nerves, was able to come back in the 200 and run the fastest time that a Guyanese male athlete would have run for the year,” Hutson said as he highlighted some of Newton’s achievements for 2022.
He went on to explain, “So he is a special kid for his age. Being 17 and being the fastest athlete in the nation to me was commendable. We still would rely on the coach — his coach that has been working with him, fashioning his programme and doing what he has to do — to keep working with him and bringing him through.”
Hutson has divulged that their crop of Level Two coaches can offer advice, but the pattern of shifting an athlete’s programme has been detrimental to the sport.
“I think sometimes administrators would like to say, ‘This is a special kid. Let us collect him and do this special thing with him’. And you take him out of that comfort zone that he has grown accustomed to and (you) end up destroying (him),” Hutson explained.
He continued, “I think that coach has been doing an admirable job with him, and I think that coach should continue right through to the next level.”
Shifting to a more technical standpoint, Hutson explained that, from the AAG end, helpful advice can be offered without total interference.
Hutson shared, “As I said, what we do have now is a panel of at least 8 Level 2 sprints/hurdles coaches who, when they come to the track and see any of the athletes compete or have a flaw, they can then talk with the coach or work out what that athlete could do, but don’t try to say, ‘Oh, give me that athlete and I’m going to make him better’. That has been leading to the destruction of our athletes, and it has never worked before.”
Hutson has explained that the AAG would do all that it can, in terms of what is necessary, to ensure the athletes’ development.