Guyana end up 2nd after thrilling IGG weekend

The 54th edition of the Inter-Guiana Games (IGG) lit up local venues across Guyana over the past three days, culminating in a second-place finish for the hosts as neighbouring Suriname claimed the top spot.
On Sunday morning, Guyana romped to a first-place finish in the futsal event, on the back of a 6-4 victory over Suriname in the second of their two matches during the competition.

Isaiah Ifill opened the scoring for Guyana in the fifth minute. However, Suriname’s Requil De Mees levelled the scores in the eighth minute.
The scores soon moved to 3-3 in the blink of an eye as Guyana’s Ifill completed his brace in the 17th minute, while Quaency Fraser began his attack in the 16th minute. For Suriname, Revuillio Samson (16th) and Dareal Oemar (18th) added their names to the scoresheet.

It was at that point that the encounter became tense, as both teams made a move to come away with the win. Seon Grant added one to Guyana’s tally in the 28th minute and Fraser completed his second hat-trick of the competition in the 37th and 40th minutes to push Guyana’s tally to 6. For Suriname, they could only respond through J-CI Mackin Dawoot in the 42nd minute.
In swimming, the Guyanese team were not so fortunate, capturing a bronze medal behind Suriname (gold) and French Guiana (silver). Guyana had five individual and five relay medals for a total of 10 over the three-day competition at the National Aquatic Centre. Champions Suriname claimed 33 individual medals and six relay medals for a gold medal-winning 39, followed by French Guiana with 24 medals (18 individual and 6 for relays).

Over in chess, Guyana’s women’s team consisting of Aditi Joshi, Maliah Rajkumar, Ciel Clement, and Italy Ton-Chung accumulated 11 points over the course of the competition for a second-place finish. Suriname claimed first place in the women’s division, with 11.5.
On the other hand, Guyana’s open team consisting of Kyle Couchman, Sachin Pitamber, Micaiah Enoe and Alexander Zhang racked up 12 points, defeating Suriname by one point, forcing them to settle for second place.
Overall, Guyana claimed the gold medal in chess, with a total of 23 points. Suriname ended up second with 22.5 points while French Guiana were only able to accumulate 2.5 points.

In the athletics arena, Guyana came away with yet another dominant win, racking up 442 points overall. The next best team were French Guiana, coming in second with 300 points while Suriname had to settle for third place with 213 points.
Overall, French Guiana accumulated 73 points to claim third place in the IGG. Guyana finished second with 75 points and the champions, Suriname accumulated 83 points across the six-discipline competition.
Further, it was announced that Suriname will be next year’s hosts of the IGG.