Director of Sport Christopher Jones, during an engagement on Friday night indicated that the National Sports Commission (NSC) will be embarking on a “Light it up” project and has set the deadline for completion as October 2017, just prior to the launch of the Inter-Guiana Games (IGG) 2017.
Tennis Inter Guiana Games are usually held separately from the traditional other seven disciplines and in October 2017, Guyana will host the tennis championship.
Jones noted that the NSC is aware of the obstacles that hinder the development of many sports in the country but reminded the public that there is a commitment by the current administration and the NSC to improve sports.
“We recognize the limitations that exist throughout the country in terms of facilities in many disciplines and of course like the commitment the government would have made to the sporting fraternity in general, we are committed to sport development throughout the length and breadth of the country,” the Director of Sport recalled.
Director of Sport Christopher Jones
The Director of Sport highlighted that many countries have facilities that can practically have occupants training all day and night while it is impossible for us to use a number of local facilities after the sun goes down simply because we do not have enough lighting, pointing out the Tennis Court at the National Resource Centre as one such venue.
“I would also want to say if you haven’t read it or heard of it before, one of the projects we [NSC] have in 2017 is the ‘Light it up Campaign’ in which we recognize that the usage of facilities and grounds throughout the country do not have lights and of course if persons intend to do training they go beyond sunset so of course a project we have in 2017 is to see facilities across the length and breadth of the country receiving lights and the tennis court at the National Resource Centre is one of them. So long before IGG games that facility will be lit,” Jones stated.
He went on to say that this was possible due to the doubling of last year’s budget. “In 2017 as a result of the budget allocation that has been made available, we would be seeing a lot of the facilities being rolled out throughout the length and breadth of the country,” Jones pointed out.
Consequently, Jones set the deadline for the completion of this project to be before October.
“I can say this now and make a commitment to the tennis association that the upcoming IGG Games that will be had in October that the facility we currently have at the Resource Centre I want to assure you that the National Sports Commission will be working with you to ensure that that facility is of regional standard in preparation for those games,” Jones promised.
