Multi-million upgrade for Aquatic Centre

…automatic time system introduced

The launch of the National Sports Academy on Saturday came as a two-fold blessing for the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) and swimmers countrywide as the National Aquatic Centre at Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown saw a multimillion-dollar upgrade.

A little swimmer is one of the first to test out the Colorado Time System at the completion of her 50 metres race

The upgrade – the addition of an automatic time system at the pool should drastically transform the sport for the better.
“Whilst these initiatives may not seem as the end of the earth, I can tell you there are multiple things that come with this [time system]. One of them is the increase in the number of athletes that will be exposed to the sport, but more so the important one is the implementation of a management system that can allow us to capture data, management data, manage athletes’ performance, growth and development throughout Guyana, which is important not only for Guyana but the world,” GASA President Dwayne Scott shared.
Scott went on to disclose, “It allows Guyana now to host international events; it allows Guyana now to assess the performance of our athletes in comparison with the rest of the world.”
The brand chosen for the Liliendaal pool is the Colorado Time systems and comes with a price tag of just over GY$7 million.

Sport Minister Charles Ramson Jr

“So, you will see that the equipment that we chose wasn’t inferior equipment, it is high-quality equipment that we made the investment on, because we knew it was very important to have the accuracy of times,” Sport Minister Charles Ramson Jr told those gathered at the venue on Saturday afternoon.
Ramson Jr went on to shed light on the planning that went into acquiring the Colorado Time System, revealing that it took some shifting around of the Culture, Youth and Sport Ministry’s budgetary allocations.
The Minister explained, “It came to my attention because of our regular engagement that we had with all of the Sports Associations, including GASA. They had shared with me that this critical bit of equipment was very important for two things: 2) it would help in the accuracy of recording our races.
“I was lucky last year that when we had concluded all the implementation for all of our projects, that we had had savings at the end of the year that we could’ve put towards something …. put towards a number of things.”

GASA President Dwayne Scott

Ramson Jr added, “When I discovered that it wasn’t 15,000 USD, it was actually about 35,000 USD, so $7 million, it made me wobble a little bit. We went back to the drawing board, we positioned and reallocated money.”
He then stressed the importance of local associations securing the hosting rights of international meets and tournaments, opining that the automatic time system would assist in that for swimming. In fact, Ramson Jr publicised that the hosting of the Inter-Guiana Games, of which swimming was one component, was high on his agenda for 2022.

Times displayed on the scoreboard after the completion of a race

“No longer will it be the days that politicians will come and make promises and not fulfil them,” the Minister said about his commitment to sport in Guyana.
The Colorado Time System comes equipped with a digital board that tracks swimmers’ times in real time and immediately displays the completed time, by just the touch of a pad at the end of the swimming lanes.