The never ending discussion of whether or not Guyana will have its very own velodrome or cycling track may very well be put to rest since the National Sports Commission will be exploring the possibility to begin construction in 2018.
The prospects of a Velodrome could be looking up
Long serving member of the cycling fraternity, National Cycling Coach, Hassan Mohamed has made it clear that there are a number of benefits in having a velodrome or even a cycling track in the country. Among the positives, Mohamed pointed out that this will help to improve the competition in the local arena and will in turn make our riders better when they go on the international scene.
Another benefit of having this is that it will attract a number of tourists since Guyana will host cycling tournaments, the idea he has scene in Caribbean Islands visited during his career.
“You can’t want someone to break a record on a small track he has to do it on a 333.33 track, Barbados has a 500 meters but it is better than nothing.” The National Cycling Coach said, adding that “a lot of people tell you about cycling track, they want a velodrome, they don’t know what the size of a velodrome is and this is where I come in, there is a difference between a cycling track and a velodrome but if you got any of those then you will see what they will produce.”
Mohamed related that it was his vision to have a track right at the National Stadium with an athletic track inside as well as a football field within the 400 meter track.
Director of Sport, Christopher Jones said “I would have recognized the call or should I say the louder call for such a facility in the later part of 2016, unfortunately that wasn’t filtered into the request of the 2017 budget allocation but of course in 2017 we are looking at the feasibility for that and of course after a the study a submission will be done for 2018.” However, this is not dampening the spirits of having the track as he noted “there is hope that this will happen.”
As it relates to location, there has always been talks about where it would be, some years ago identifying a plot of land in South Ruimveldt, Durban Backlands and even where the National Stadium is at Providence.
“I think the Cycling Federation would have indicated that there is a land space that would have been identified by them some years ago somewhere around the Durban Park area once this is confirmed and this land is still available, it makes the work much easier for us to confirm whether or not we can see the provision for such a facility being available for 2018,” Jones stated.
It was reported in sections of the media in June 2016, that President of Guyana, His Excellency David Granger says that his government is willing to consider the erection of an international cycling facility at Durban Park and will be making a decision shortly.
In the Caribbean, Guyana is one of the few countries without a cycling track. Trinidad, Suriname, Barbados and Jamaica all have cycling stadiums.
