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Are we going to learn from Jamaica?
By Rawle Welch
Some say it’s just a simple case of this year being an Olympic year when asked to name a reason why so sudden the schools’ athletics season has been enjoying such overwhelming support from athletes, parents and fans–features that was missing for over a decade.
Well, my own feeling is that apart from the natural instinct youths have to participate in sports, Jamaican Usain Bolt’s golden performances and by extension that of his teammates created a stimulating effect right across the Caribbean, including Guyana, where though geographically located in South America, is more emotionally, culturally and historically connected with the region.
This year, every single track and field event that I’ve attended whether to report or just simply watch has produced quite an emotional stir in my heart, which I must confess, is the primary motive for this piece.
Bolt, whose achievements on the track was astounding has become a household name not only in his native Jamaica and the Caribbean, but worldwide as well and I’m quite sure that every athlete who will face the starter’s orders this season would be thinking about registering dominating performances to mirror that of the lanky Jamaican athlete.
Once again, it is clear that there is no shortage of talent, judging from some of the exciting duels that I’ve seen so far and it is now up to the administrators of the sport to spot the gifted ones and give them their unmitigated support so that Guyana can someday feel the same sense of pride and achievement that Jamaica experienced after they dethroned perennial champions, the USA and has now become the undisputed athletics capital of the world.
We have the natural ingredient to follow our Caribbean counterparts, but it would require astute planning in addition to a more supportive corporate community for us to get to that level.
But, even before we call on the business community to be more supportive to the cause, we must implore that the Government play a more pivotal role.
They must portray the kind of leadership that will not be interpreted as being selective in offering their support, but rather implement a strategy that caters for all.
Guyana has been there before and even though the world has not waited on us, but has instead moved quite a distance from where we are presently, we know exactly what is needed to regain our right positioning.
We must first do some introspection, that is search deep within ourselves and understand that if we remain isolated inside the walls of our country and not reach out to each other to attain a common goal, no one externally would be willing to provide us with the assistance and expertise that could generate development.
The cupidity that has inundated the sports arena is counterproductive to development and until such characteristics are eradicated it will always be difficult for us to move to that next point.
Just to mention an unhelpful occurrence, quite recently there was a meeting among the governmental institutions that are responsible for running sports to discuss the whole aspect of getting it back to the desired level in schools, but as far as I know, none of the parties involved made any release (s) informing the media or public or even interested stakeholders what was contained in the deliberations or what decisions were taken to address the apparent absence of a vibrant sports policy for schools.
One might have thought that the media would have been the avenue of choice to ventilate the results of such discussions, but to the best of my knowledge no evidence is there to support any attempt being made to get the media involved.
It could be that no concrete decisions were arrived at so that the parties did not see it fit to invite the media, but my humble opinion is that the organ in charge of disseminating the news should be engaged at every step.
It is evident that the athletes and parents have done their part as usual, let us see what the Government, Athletics Association of Guyana and the Guyana Olympic Association will do now.
For the umpteenth time, we’ve seen, some of us close up and others from a distance, what exceptional achievements in sports can do for an individual, team and country.
It can have a double effect such as financial gain to the athlete or team and economic and image benefits for the country. Right now we have a huge first innings lead and enough time to go for an outright win.
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