Prioritise decision making

Jun 25, 2008 Sports

By Rawle Welch
To many, the construction of a multi-purpose sports facility should head the list of projects that the Government needed to embark on to hasten the progress of sports.

In a country where the development of sports facilities are very much dependant on the government’s financial capability, the need to have a multi-purpose stadium should have taken precedence over the proposed plan to construct an Olympic-size swimming pool which according to reports is scheduled to be completed by year end.

Many arguments could be made to support the view that construction of the pool will not bring immediate or medium term benefits to this country and this is taking into consideration both spectatorship and results, while a facility that can host cycling, rugby, athletics and football could reap enormous dividends in those areas almost instantly due to the larger fan following that they enjoy.

This is not to say that Guyana does not need a state of the art swimming facility, but to build it ahead of one that could serve more than one discipline is a bit shortsighted.

There are many examples to support why this should not be done, but with preparation of the location already at full steam the obvious thing to do is to give the project all the support it needs until its conclusion.

It is necessary for such decisions to be highlighted since it can serve as a guide for the future when administrators of sports meet to deliberate on issues to enhance its development in our country.
For argument sake let us attempt to weigh the pros and cons of which facility should have been constructed first.

If you follow the developments and performances of swimmers around the world, you would agree that it will be extremely difficult for a locally-bred swimmer to attain the competitive level to challenge those on the world circuit.

This is so because the sport has evolved to the extent where FINA (The World Governing Body for the sport) recently had to investigate whether or not the bodysuits worn by swimmers from the more established nations in the sport was giving them a decisive advantage. Fortunately, after several stringent tests, they failed to detect any significant advantage to those athletes.

Those performance enhancing suits are very expensive and probably way beyond the reach of our swimmers.
This sport has become like motor racing where the more superior in aerodynamics has a distinct advantage, while only the top countries in the sport can afford them.

Secondly, records are being broken at a phenomenal rate, meaning a record is broken today and possibly before a championships is over it is broken again.

Then the question is: Could we produce a swimmer over the next 5-10 years to attain that level whilst training here? My honest answer is I do not think we could.

Our best swimmer Earlando McRae, who performed so well at the Inter-Guianas Games, was on course to maintain his unbeaten streak when he decided to borrow a pair of goggles from a teammate for the final individual race.

Well, it unfortunately fell off his eyes, before landing on his nose, ultimately affected ability to breathe properly and eventually had to settle for second place.

It was indeed an unlucky incident because he was clearly going to beat the eventual winner, but it just shows how far back we are in terms of equipment both quality and quantity and I presume a pair of goggles is far less expensive than the bodysuits that are being produced today.

I mention all this to emphasise the enormous task we have to get to the level where we can compete with the top nations and get positive results over the next decade.

Thirdly, swimming has never been able to attract large spectator support comparable with football, athletics or even cycling and purely on these points alone, priority should have been given to a venue that could have provided enormous payback to all, including the hoteliers, food vendors, tourist operators etc.

Guyana would have been the winner because it would mean we now had the ability to host international events of greater magnitude than swimming, thus providing constant business for the hotel industry that emerged for Cricket World Cup.

Additionally, the construction of such a facility would have benefited our athletes immensely.
Let’s take football, despite being eliminated from the World Cup Qualifiers recently, the support that game received is testimony to what could be achieved.

In cycling, from all the reports we’ve seen, we have some of the best juniors in the entire Caribbean, while athletics though we are way off in terms of regional supremacy, our dominance at the Inter-Guianas Games gave a stark reminder of what can be achieved if the situation is reversed.

In closing, I would like to challenge the administrators of sports to invite a broader spectrum of sports enthusiasts who can make an input so that at the end of the day there is a feeling of national consensus in whatever decision is taken.