MCYS to engage sports associations on travel protocols
Sport Minister Charles Ramson jr.
The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport (MCYS) and the National Sports Commission (NSC) are said to be pulling out all the stops to avoid any recurrence of the fiasco that occurred at CARIFTA Games 2023.
As such, Sport Minister Charles Ramson jr. and Director of Sport Steve Ninvalle, together with Assistant Directors of Sport Melissa Dow-Richardson and Franklyn Wilson, met on Saturday morning with the heads of Guyana’s 12 core sports to flesh out protocols for teams travelling to represent Guyana.
“We discussed a number of things about the method and the procedure of having Government’s involvement and support for any of the travelling teams for the core sports, and we’ve established a framework for them to do that,” the Minister shared with media operatives following the Saturday morning engagement.
Ramson jr. divulged, “This was just to give them the opportunity of having the engagement with me and the National Sports Commission; and the GOA was present as well, to say very firmly, ‘What happened in the past is never going to happen again’. We cannot allow the country to be embarrassed like that. No one from Guyana, or Guyanese from any part of the world, could ever be proud of our representation encountering that type of situation.”
While the Ministry and NSC had the opportunity to put forth protocols, representatives of the core sports were also given the opportunity to agree, disagree, or suggest modifications to such protocols. In light of that, the Minister emphasised the importance of such an engagement.
“The changes we’ve outlined are important because, in the absence of it, it’ll continue to be a perennial problem; and without us taking a form position on it, the country will continue to be embarrassed. That’s why it was very important to have that session with them today,” Ramson jr. highlighted.
Only a few weeks ago, the Government of Guyana (GoG), through the MCYS, had to intervene to get Guyana’s CARIFTA Games team back home following alleged negligence on the part of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG). The occurrence has spurred conversations about Government’s involvement in getting athletes to and from Guyana when representing the Golden arrowhead.
