…Event will be used as a Test case for CARIFTA Games
An exhilarating weekend packed with track and field action is expected as the Senior Athletics Championships gets underway this Friday.
In excess of 300 athletes are said to be registered for the National Seniors (June 18 to 20), a three-day meet that would be used to test the water for future international events, and
President of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), Aubrey Hutson, is impressed with the large turnout.
AAG President Aubrey Hutson
“This event is packed! Even though we would have limited it to three athletes per club in an event, we still have clubs making a lot of noise about wanting to put their athletes in,” Hutson shared.
Approved by the National COVID-19 Task Force, the event would, however, be missing its boisterous athletics fans. On the topic of crowd control, Hutson shared how the numbers would be managed.
He divulged, “What we’ve been advising the clubs is to allow only the athletes who are competing in that session to come to the venue, because the COVID-19 (Task Force) has given us clear guidelines on how many people you should have at any given point (in) time.”
Huston revealed that the AAG are working out any technical issues to pull off a successful meet.
The National Seniors promises some exciting action this weekend (Jemima Holmes Photo)
“The technical meeting should be on Thursday (today). We’re going to really and truly sanctify the technical meet programme in terms of athletes being placed in their respective lanes. A preliminary list is already out, and we have as (many)as four heats in the 100M. So, the technical delegate is looking back at that to see if we’ll have to do preliminary semifinals and finals. That’s going to be worked out between now and tomorrow afternoon,” the AAG President explained.
Aside from providing athletes with the opportunity to collect points in hope of Olympic qualification, the National Seniors would serve as an opportunity for CARIFTA’s Local Organizing Committee to test some plans.
Leron Brumell
Media Manager Leron Brumell explained some of the AAG’s motives.
“A number of systems will be done, so at the end of the three days that we have here, we’ll sit down, assess what we started with, our strengths and our weaknesses, and then of course evaluating that to make it better, and fine tune it for CARIFTA,” Brumell noted.
“We are constantly meeting with NACAC officials in our weekly meetings, and updating them on our plan. At this stage we are ahead, according to NACAC officials, with our planning on paper,” the LOC member boasted.
The Local Organising Committee would also be looking to scout accommodation, create a warm- up track, and relocate the long-jump area; all suggestions that NACAC have made upon their inspection of the Leonora Track and Field Facility. However, not all of those plans would be instituted as soon as this weekend.
Several foreign-based Guyanese athletes are suiting up for the National Seniors, such as Chantoba Bright, Aliyah and Jasmine Abrams, Arinze Chance and Jeremy Bascom. Athletes finishing first to third place would receive monetary prizes and medals, with the exception of student athletes or those aspiring (scholarship athletes are not given monetary prizes by the AAG). (Jemima Holmes)
