IAAF Kids’ Athletics Programme wraps up in Georgetown

Sep 20, 2008 Sports

– children participate in demonstrative activity

Up, up and away! This student executes almost perfect form in the Kids’ javelin throw event yesterday at the YMCA.

By Edison Jefford
The introduction of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Kids’ Athletics Programme wrapped up in Georgetown yesterday with a demonstration from various primary school children at the YMCA.

The programme, which German Olympic Sports Confederation (GOSC) Sports Scientist: Uwe Wenzel facilitated, will be transported to New Amsterdam and according to Wenzel, a different method will be implemented.

“We will have the same event in New Amsterdam but not with the same kit. We will construct the different stations from other material,” Wenzel pointed out, while stating that a single kit for the activity cost over US$2,000.

He said the cost of one of the kits makes it impractical to produce kits for every territory when the same can be built from supplemental material. Wenzel said that he has already procured the material to reproduce the kit.

Teachers in Georgetown and Linden had gone through a three–day training course on how to implement the programme. They used the official IAAF kit or equipment but the same will not be used in New Amsterdam next week.

The novel Kids’ Athletics event uses a specialised IAAF kit in eight different stations or activities that seek to imitate conventional athletics events. The programme is conducted for children between the ages of 8–13.

The Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) facilitated an activity yesterday afternoon at the YMCA where primary school children were given the opportunity to demonstrate the eight different stations of the programme.

: Introduction to Pole Vault? This event is called Pole long jump in Kids’ Athletics and this student delivers a big jump yesterday at the YMCA.

These stations or activities include: Formula One (a hurdle and cross bar run), Cross Hop Target Throwing, Shuttle Relay, Kids’ Javelin Throw, Squat Jumps, Speed Ladder, Pole Long Jump and an endurance run at the end.

“There are eight different stations then a final endurance run where kids collect candy after each round. The idea is to collect as much candy as possible [which means that the children must continue running,” Wenzel explained.

“It has been very well. The teachers are well prepared. It’s hard to organise all these events but the kids and teachers know [now] what to do,” Wenzel told Kaieteur Sport when asked about the programme in Georgetown.

Wenzel will conduct a seminar for senior club coaches at the same venue from 2pm today before he travels to New Amsterdam on Monday for the second implementation course which begins on Tuesday and concludes on Thursday.

AAG President, Claude Blackmore revealed yesterday that Chairman of the association’s development committee, Cornell Rose was appointed National Coordinator of the Kids’ Athletics programme in Guyana.

Asked what the plans for the development of the event are after Wenzel departs, the AAG president said that the association will be meeting with the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) and Ministry of Education to present a plan.

“We will talk with GTU and the Ministry of Education to try to make this event work. It will run per school in various GTU districts; it does not take a very large field for all the stations,” Blackmore briefly outlined.

Latest News