GDF resources to be utilised for Sports Academy this year

– says Ramson Jr.
…reveals 2023 plans for Academy

The Guyana Defence Force’s (GDF’s) sports resources are a part of several plans that the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport have in order to ensure the success of the National Sports Academy this year.
This was disclosed by subject Minister Charles Ramson Jr during the National Sports Conference on Saturday last.
Ramson Jr, in brief remarks, spoke about this year’s plans for the academy, which was started in 2022, highlighting that the GDF has numerous resources that can be utilised.
“What you will know this year is that we’re going to be collaborating with the army, because we’ve already had some very fruitful discussions. They have a lot of built-in resources right there in the army, and they’re very keen to support the work that we’re doing at the Sports Academy, because many of them come from a sports background, and many of them have training in that area as well,” the Sport Minister has disclosed.
Continuing, he said, “So they’re going to be coming to assist each of the sports that fall into that category, so that they can support the work of the Sports Academy.”
Ramson did not hold back on details of other plans that are in the pipeline for the National Sports Academy this year, which includes his Ministry’s focus on tournaments and an avenue through which they can be publicized.
Ramson Jr. revealed, “This year, however, since we’ve started the nurseries last year, this year our focus is on the tournaments. What you will see coming out of the Ministry in a very short space of time – maybe in the next few days – is a sports calendar; a sports calendar that will be published for every single month. You’ll get all the main and major activities or events that are related to sport. You will have that in one calendar, and every month we will be publishing it in the newspapers,” the Minister clarified.
The Sport Minister went on to share why the focus has evolved to tournaments this year, as compared to nurseries last year.
“This is to help in raising the kind of awareness for the tournaments, because the tournaments are going to be very critical this year. And that’s one of the reasons that we asked the Sports Associations to provide to us, before the start of 2023, a list of main events for tournaments.”
According to Ramson Jr, 2024 will see focus shifting to developing elite programmes for athletes. He stated on the topic, “This is going to be our focus for next year, and I’m putting the National Sports Commission on notice, so that they can plan for this. Next year is when we focus on our elite training programme.”
The Sport Minister further divulged that if the opportunity presents itself to begin the elite programmes for certain sports this year, then the step will be taken earlier than planned.