By Romario Samaroo
The event that began all the way back in 1967 with athletes from Guyana and Suriname going at each other for a simple trophy has escalated into the Inter-Guiana Games some 49 years later. The 2016 edition which will be known as the Goodwill games was officially launched at the National Sports Commission (NSC), Homestretch Avenue on Tuesday at a simple ceremony.
Guyana and Suriname will battle for supremacy across seven sporting disciplines including Football, Volleyball, Badminton, Table Tennis, Basketball, Track and Field and for the first time, Futsal while French Guiana will not be participating in the games, thus the renaming.
Present at the launching was representatives from each of the disciplines as well as Director of Sport, Christopher Jones and Digicel’s Senior Sponsorship and events Executive, Louanna Abrams.
Chairman of the NSC, Ivan Persaud pointed to the fact that apart from the School’s Championships, there is no other real tournament where students get to flourish other than the Goodwill Games.
According to the representatives, all the teams have been selected based on merit and criteria of being 19 years old or under and registered in an educational institution.
The representatives of each discipline have all indicated that the teams are already selected as per protocol of the games and it is expected that the Guyana contingent will be well represented.
In the discipline of swimming, Leon Seaton, Manager of the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association, said the 12-member team will be spearheaded by Olympian, Hannibal Gaskin. Danielle George and Jadyn George who recently won Silver and Gold respectively at the Regional Goodwill games are also expected to give good accounts of themselves.
President of the Guyana Badminton Association, Gowkaran Ramdhani highlighted that the team was selected through a ranking system which is reviewed monthly, making it easy for the best players to be selected while most of the Volleyball team have come through the schools Volleyball tournament.
Similarly, the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) held trials at the Leonora Facility where the best timings were used to select the team.
Preparation of the teams has already begun with the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) pushing their players and making sacrifices to train in the evenings. Swimming has also begun preparations with morning and evening sessions at the National Aquatic Centre.
It was revealed that thus far, Digicel, Banks D.I.H through their Powerade and Rainforest Waters brands, Impressions and the Government of Guyana via the Ministry of Education, Department of Culture Youth and Sport are all on board to sponsor the event.
The games will officially open on Friday October 21 with the opening ceremony at 18:00h at the Leonora Track and Field Facility followed by Track and Field events. Earlier in the day, the Male and Female Basketball will bounce off from 13:00h at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) while the Male and Female Volleyball competitions will be heal at the National Gymnasium, Mandela Avenue from 13:00h.
Saturday October 22 at the National Gymnasium, Badminton from 09:00H, Male and Female Volleyball from 15:00h while at CASH Futsal will kick off at 13:00h followed by Male and Female Basketball while at Leonora there will be track and field events from 16:00h.
Sunday October 23, Swimming will be held at the National Aquatic Centre from 09:00h, Volleyball continues at the National Gymnasium from 13:00h and CASH will host Futsal from 09:00h, Table Tennis from 10:00h with Futsal continuing at 13:00H and Basketball into the night from 15:00h.
The closing ceremony will be kept immediately after Basketball at 20:00h.
