Ramson Jr hails athletics’ success as eye-opener for Guyanese

Culture, Youth, and Sport Minister Charles Ramson Jr is happy with Guyana’s recent performance at the South American Under-20 Championships in Peru and the great potential the nation has in track and field.
Guyana’s young athletes continued their strong showing at the South American U20 Championships in Peru, with Malachi Austin claiming gold in the 400 metres, Athaleyah Hinckson winning the women’s 100m, and Tianna Springer bronze in the 400m.
Ramson Jr revealed in an exclusive interview with <<<Guyana Times Sport>>> that Guyanese have been hit with an eye-opener by the recent success due to their exceptional talent.
“Over the past few years, it has been a kind of eye-opener to the country what our potential is in track and field. The persons who might have been narrowly focused on the sport may have already recognised that, because they have more day-to-day contact with it, but I think that throughout the country it became common knowledge that we have huge potential in track; now everybody knows that. If I take you to Lethem now or I take you to Region One, people all over they know that we have been doing the best that we can in track and that we have huge potential in track,” he noted.

The Minister continued by praising the strong performances, and articulated expectations of a better showing from Springer in future meets.
“It wasn’t just that we wanted them to participate; we wanted them to show dominance which they did and it is in races that are all so tough, very tough to win – a hundred metres is one of the races and 400m is the other race and then we had Tianna getting bronze. I would like to see a better result from Tianna and I think she would like to see a better [result] for herself and she’s totally capable,” Ramson Jr shared.
As such, he went to expound on the impact of the Ministry’s investment in the Elite Training Camp.
“That is just an example of more success coming from our athletes, but a lot of that has to do with the investment that we are making in them. Keep in mind, for example, one of the other pillars which is the elite camp of the sports academy they recently concluded, an investment that we made, that we have been organising since last year. A team of elite coaches and trainers to come from the United States of America that we organised for them to come to do their camps here and they are also currently monitoring their implementation of the programme,” the Minister said.
Focus now shifts as athletes start their preparation for the World Athletics U20 Championships set for Lima, Peru from August 27-31, 2024. (Omar McKenzie)