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Can the AAG justify Collins’ selection?
By Edison Jefford
If there was an autonomous Commission of Inquiry for sports in Guyana, Claude Blackmore and the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) would have been investigated on numerous occasions!
One of the more recent cases that would have caused such investigations is the selection of Oslyn Collins to represent Guyana at the upcoming annual International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) World Junior Championships.
Collins will compete at the prestigious IAAF junior meet in Poland from July 8–13 as a non–qualifier, which means that she did not meet the official qualifying standard for the Games. In fact she was way off!
The AAG has peddled an unfounded myth about Collins’ tenure in Trinidad and Tobago, which I hope to clarify in this article. Collins did not train with Trinidad’s National Junior team as the AAG claimed in a press release.
I had the profound privilege of seeing all of Collins’ performances in Trinidad. None of them were close to impressive. Her best time in the 400m was 59 seconds at the Trinidad National Junior trials in Tobago a few weeks ago.
She made the final with that time and was given lane six. Out of that lane, she finished last with a minute plus in a race that was won with a time just under 55 seconds. But before then Collins had similar performances.
At the Hampton International Games, she finished last in the 400m with a minute plus seconds; at the Sugar and Energy Games she repeated that result; at the Morvant Jets Games last weekend nothing changed!
In other words, Collins finished last in approximately five meets in Trinidad. She literally made up numbers in races but will nevertheless be granted the honour of representing this country in Poland from Tuesday.
The AAG will embarrass itself and this country next week and it’s not a case where the body did not have alternatives. The critical question becomes: what was the real reason behind Collins’ selection to represent Guyana?
Collins has scope to develop but she is far from outstanding. The options the AAG had include the super talented Jonathan Fagundes and Alika Morgan. Those two athletes are Guyana’s most dominant juniors by any estimation.
Fagundes currently live and train in Trinidad where he is highly regarded as an athlete. The Hampton Games Organising Committee promised him a ticket for next year’s meet after his stellar performance this year.
The 16-year-old Fagundes would often compete with regionally renowned Pamenos Ballantyne, Guyana’s Lionel D’Andrade and Trinidad’s Richard Jones. He is brave and has the ability to do well in Poland.
Alika Morgan, in her last year as a junior, should have also got an opportunity to compete with the best in the world after coming off her fourth win in the regional CARICOM 10K road race recently.
The AAG’s misadministration and illogical decision making has denied two promising junior athletes of due international exposure. The AAG cannot prove how they came to select Collins to compete in Poland.
This is the latest spate of carelessness to rock the 15 plus years of Blackmore’s reign as AAG president. An analysis of the misfortunes of track and field in Guyana under Blackmore’s management would take another article.
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