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IGG teams depart today minus female footballers
Ministry made every effort to have them – Kumar
By Edison Jefford
A confident and exuberant group of national junior sportsmen and women, which is made up of four disciplines, departed Guyana for French Guiana early this morning short of the female football team that the ministry attempted to secure.
FLASHBACK!!! Guyanese athletes from last year’s IGG contingent proudly displays the National Flag upon entering the sports arena in Suriname. The same national spirit will be displayed in French Guiana when the local team arrives.
Guyana will compete against Suriname and host, French Guiana in swimming, track and field, male football and chess. Director of Sport, Neil Kumar told Kaieteur Sport that the ministry had made every effort to get the female footballers.
“We couldn’t get visas for them because many of them didn’t have passports. They were probably thinking that they could have gotten visas with a travel permit but that was not possible at. We couldn’t put them together,” Kumar said.
The Director of Sport expressed his disappointment in the manner in which the team had approached their preparations for the Inter-Guiana Games (IGG). He said that they had an entire year to put themselves together for the event.
“We told them over a year now even though they were not training together. They had an issue with travelling to Georgetown, we said look we are going to provide transportation but still it seem as though they didn’t care,” Kumar informed.
Most of the female football players were based out of town and because the team was one of the junior squads, their parents had to give consent for them to travel, but most of them apparently indicated that they had other commitments.
Asked if Guyana’s non-participation in women’s football at IGG would be a setback, and if it would affect the overall title hopes, Kumar believed that it would not be because the country is not strong in junior women’s football.
“It would not be a setback really because they would not have reached the standard. Let’s not fool ourselves; we wanted to take them still for the exposure even though we knew that they wouldn’t have been that strong,” he answered.
“It cannot hold us back in our team performance. It’s not a case where we did not try. We told them at a meeting since last November what they had to do and we were prepared to help with everything,” Kumar reiterated yesterday.
The Director of Sport said that Guyana will win in athletics and male football, which will give the country three wins that will be enough to win the first stage. He said it will be an overwhelming overall win if swimming does well.
Swim Coach, Stephanie Fraser had expressed confidence in the swim team with Athletics Coach, Lyndon Wilson emphatically stating that athletics will win. Male Football Coach, Joseph Wilson had also indicated that his team can win.
With that level of confidence and hope Guyana left to return with a triumph from the first stage of the 2010 IGG in French Guiana. The second stage to complete the competition is to be held in Guyana later this year.
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