National track & Field facility gets thumbs up from overseas athletes
By Rene Stoby
The recently concluded inaugural Aliann Pompey Invitational was deemed a success and one of the reasons for
The North Stand which directly acts as a windbreaker for the homestretch of the track
this can be attributed to the support of the fans who mostly journeyed to the event all the way from the city to the National Track & Field Facility, located at Leonora on the West Coast of Demerara.
The facility sits on acres of space between the West Coast Demerara Public Road and the Atlantic Ocean. Initially exposed to the full brunt of the ocean breeze, the facility has welcomed the addition of a new north stand which now directly serves as a wind breaker and ensures that sprints are not affected by the wind. Wind assistance is the benefit an athlete receives in a race and if a tail wind exceeds 2 metres per second or 3.9 knots the result cannot be registered as a record at any level.
The tail wind recorded for the sprints at the AP Invitational fluctuated between 1.1 to 2.6 knots
Guyanese Olympic qualifier in the 100 and 200m Brenessa Thompson who broke the National record in the Women’s 100m and also won the 200m described the track as “really good”.
After winning his 200m, Guyana’s Olympic qualifier in the 400m Winston George spoke to the media and said, “The track is great and it feels good and having the home crowd here also feels good.”
Aliyah Abrams who is set to represent the land of many waters in the women’s 400m at the upcoming Rio Games described the atmosphere last Saturday, “this is very lovely, it is very free and positive and the crowd and the facility was great and it was fun to be a part of this.”
Overseas Guyanese Kadecia Baird who won the 400m spoke positively of her experience at the meet, “It was great today the crowd was amazing the track is amazing…the competition was good.”
United States sprinter Phil DeRosier, victorious in the 100m dash was also in full praises for the facility, “Incredible atmosphere, these are some beautiful people, the track is very nice, this can turn out to be a really world class meet…I’m very impressed with the track, I think it has a little push in it and I’m glad I came.”
Organizer of the meet, four times Olympian Aliann Pompey who also spoke to the media after the meet, was in full agreement that it met its objectives, “I think it did achieve its objective which is to prove that we have everything and this is small as it should be.” She went on to say, “after this it can’t be that small, there’s a lot of room for improvement and I think today showed primarily to the people that are making the important decisions that we can do it and do it big”
The Aliann Pompey Invitational is set to be an annual one and more events similar in this nature is needed to boost our local athletes as the lack of competitive events is surely not helping as was evident last Saturday.
