IGG Athletics team impresses at practice

Mar 27, 2010 Sports

-Track and Field starts today

By Edison Jefford
in French Guiana
In association with
YK Investments
and Fon-J Cycle Store

Guyana’s national junior athletics team adjusted to the synthetic facility at the Baduel Stadium in Cayenne, French Guiana yesterday morning during a practice session that was used to get them acclimatised ahead of today’s track and field competition.
Before turning to the facility for workouts, National Coach, Lyndon Wilson told the team that he has been around the Inter-Guiana Games (IGG) since 1994 and he cannot recall the country ever losing that title. He urged them to keep that record straight.
“I am not prepared to allow it to happen now. Imagine 26 people representing 600-plus thousand people; that’s a good opportunity so I want all the fun and jokes to be put aside now, and I want you to get into the right frame of mind,” Wilson told them.
He pleaded with the energetic team to be as humble as possible and show good sportsmanship in light of the fact that they are defending track and field champions and the other countries, which are French Guiana and Suriname, will be looking at them.
Speaking with Kaieteur Sport following his team meeting, Wilson expressed confidence in those athletes on tour to do well under the circumstances; many of them have no prior exposure on the rubberised track while some are on their first national tour.
“I have athletes who want to excel. After the long trip, I think some of them went into a playful attitude but I had to let them know the seriousness of this competition and allow them to get back to that competition frame of mind,” Wilson indicated.
He said that he had to do that without applying any pressure on the athletes, and as a result, he did not let them know that the success of Guyana hinges on their performance. He stated that he wanted the athletes to be as mentally comfortable as possible.
“What I can tell you is that the athletes are here to win. Athletics have to lead from the front but i have not explained that to them and placed that pressure on them. I just want them to go out there and be as relaxed as they can and do their thing,” Wilson said.
Guyana’s inventory looks very strong with national schools and junior champions in the high, long and triple jumps respectively, Maxsim Duncan and Winston Caesar set to win gold medals, and in the throws, Onescia Byass and Lisa Bowman spot on.
Guyana’s male distance category will also be very hard to overcome with Kevin Bayley, Jamaal Chisholm and Tyshon Bentick in good form. However, their female counterparts, in the absence of Jevina Straker and Jenella Jonas, are a little bit shaky.
In the sprints, the sensational duo of Iana Graham and Tiffany Carto will compete in the 100m and 200m events while Shanna Thornhill runs the 400m. They are expected to lead a clean sweep of those events along with males, Franken Mercurius and Shawn Semple.
The track and field competition will start today and conclude tomorrow. Wilson believes that it will be a tremendous experience for the junior athletes, and if they pull off the win, Guyana’s athletic future is in good hands with their emergence.