– signals heightened interest on boxing and athletics
By Michelangelo Jacobus
With 2017 quickly fading in the past, the Minister of Social Cohesion with responsibility for Sport, Dr George Norton has revealed that in 2018 his ministry will be throwing their full support behind sports in Guyana.
In an exclusive sit down with Guyana Times Sport Minister Norton pointed out that the government’s initiative of developing and renovating community grounds and facilities across the country signals their intent of pushing the development of athletes and sports as a whole in Guyana.
Minister with the responsibility for Culture, Dr George Norton
With two new Synthetic tracks set to be completed later this year in Regions 10 and 6, athletes in those respective regions will welcome that initiative as they will now be exposed to competing on tracks of international standards. Both regions are known for producing outstanding athletes on the track and in field events. Out of region 10 in the past couple of years, the likes of Compton Caesar, Chantoba Bright, Daniel Williams and Deshana Skeete have emerged while in Berbice Jermain King and a few others have risen to prominence also.
However, as athletics has seen huge success along with boxing, the Minister noted that the two disciplines will receive an added push from government as the two areas are the most likely to produce Guyana’s next Olympic medal.
This does not mean that other areas of sport will not receive the government’s backing but the main focus will be on the two aforementioned sport disciplines.
Minister Norton reasoned that “boxing is not doing too badly and in athletics, last year we saw an incredible year where our athletes exceeded expectations.”
Daniel Williams, Chantoba Bright and Compton Caesar are just a few of the brightest discoveries in athletics last year; Williams, Bright and Caesar all produced medal winning performances in the historic South American U-20 Championships which was hosted by the AAG at the National Track and Field Centre (NTFC), Leonora. At the Championships, Williams copped 400m silver, 4x100m silver and high jump silver while Bright claimed Gold in the long jump and triple jump events with Caesar copping 100m Gold and 200m Silver.
Meanwhile, Guyana’s dominance in the Caribbean with the gloves in the ‘squared circle’ has been led largely by the younger generation of pugilists. “Lightening” Keevin Allicock immediately springs to mind when this topic comes up, he has been dubbed and anointed by GBA boxing executives and fans as the next Olympian to bring home a medal for Guyana; he won Junior Commonwealth silver just last year in the Bahamas. Allicock along with countrymen Colin “Superman” Lewis, Joel “Stone” Williamson and Desmond Amsterdam ensured that Guyana was well represented in December at the Caribbean Developmental Boxing (CBC) Championships where they punched their way to second overall despite their team being the smallest at the tournament.
Keevin Allicock and Daniel Williams will no doubt be the front runners for 2018 as they both have major international events coming up; they will be sternly tested at the Commonwealth Games in Australia, the CAC Games and Williams will be looking to be present at the World Junior Championships in Finland, he also has the CARIFTA Games in April.
