Hutson sees upcoming Championships as ‘second chance’ to make SA U23 roster

Following a brief pause over the last few weeks, athletics will return on a grand scale next weekend when the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) hosts the National Youth and Junior Championships.
The meet is scheduled for next weekend, September 25th and 26th, and the AAG is said to be working on ensuring there is a smooth competition. In an invited comment to Guyana Times Sport, AAG President Aubrey Hutson revealed that preparations are going well, as the AAG hopes to put together a group of capable officials to oversee the meet.

“Preparations are coming along quite nicely. We expect all the entry forms to be returned by this afternoon, and we’ve received quite a few of them. So, we’re just going to meet with some of our officials this afternoon for an initial discussion on the conduct of the meet,” the AAG President informed.
“We’re going to look during the course of next week too, to do a little refresher with all officials, (so) that we can have the right officials coming with the right attitude to have a great Youth and Junior Championships.”
Hutson also hopes to see many young athletes out on the track next Saturday and Sunday. He is citing the absence of the National Schools Track and Field Championships which are customarily hosted in November as his reason.
He said, “We expect some good performances from our young athletes, because we know that we know that there’ll be no schools’ championships this year. So, we’re trying to encourage a lot of the young athletes to come out, be active before, you know, we start next season.”
While the National Youth and Junior meet will be quite important, it can be seen as only a warm-up, as some of those athletes prepare for the South American Under 23 Championships next month.
Even though there was already a trial for qualification, Hutson says he will not be depriving any outstanding performers a spot on the South American Under 23 team.
“If any athlete does anything special, yes, we will look at it. And, you know, try to get them on the team,” he said.
The athletics boss explained, “We’re not going to look at an athlete who’s doing great things at the Youth and Junior Championships and ignore their performance. So, outside of the Under 23 trials, which most of them attended, to me it’s like a second shot at making it to (the) Under 23 team.”
The Championships will be hosted at the National Track and Field Facility at Leonora, West Coast Demerara (WCD).