The 12-member squad that represented Guyana at the 2017 Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) Games in Curacao will be full scholarships to the University of Guyana (UG) compliments of the National Sports Commission (NSC).
This announcement was made by Director of Sports Christopher Jones on Friday evening while speaking at the NSC annual awards ceremony in which the team was a honorary guest and presented with special medals for their achievements.
The CARIFTA team and their honorary medals presented by the National Sports Commission
The announcement comes on the heels of the Director advocating for more student/athletes scholarships to those remain a specific discipline, reaping both success in the classroom and on the field.
In a recent interview with this publication Jones stated “Student athletes that remain in a sport programme and keep their grades up when he/she reaches age 17 or 18 is that scholarship must be provided by the government to that athlete”.
He went unto say, “once that policy is adopted and we are able to say this in sundry to all in Guyana, it encourages parents to make sure their children keep their grades up and stick to sports”.
The policy is an attempt to integrate various sport disciplines into the school curriculum which could be done as early as September once the Education Ministry and the NSC can decide which disciplines are applicable.
Guyanese athletes were more than jubilant at the event as their medal haul ended with eight medals (four Gold, one silver, three bronze) as compared to 2016 where they finished with a total of five medals (two bronze and three silver).
The highlight for the team was Linden’s Compton Caesar’s historic win in the Boys’ Under-20 100m dash. It was the first time in the history of the CARIFTA Games, which started in 1972, that a Guyanese has won the male 100m; Caesar also took the bronze in the 200m.
The other gold medallists were fellow Lindener Chantoba Bright, overseas-based athlete Natricia Hooper, and distance runner Claudrice McKoy. McKoy also has a bronze medal from the Girls’ Under-18 1500m while Anfernee Headecker won silver in the boy’s event.
The other members of the team included: Kenisha Phillips, Onasha Rogers, Tremaine Browne, Daniel Williams, Tarique Boyle, Matthew McKenzie and Samuel Lynch while swimmer Leon Seaton and Lian Winter attended their championships in Bahamas.
