Synthetic track would not solve athletic problems

Jun 22, 2010 Sports

Dr. Frank Anthony

– Anthony believes sports library is underused

By Edison Jefford

Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony continues to reiterate his belief that the long-awaited proposed synthetic facility to be constructed at the Uitvlugt Community Centre will not be the ‘knight in shining armour’ for local track and field.
The minister’s last restatement of that perspective came during his speech at the National Stadium as officials from the Ministry of Education and Guyana Teachers’ Union gathered for the launch of the National Schools’ Athletics, Cycling and Swimming Championships.
“We’re starting on the athletics synthetic track but as I’ve said to the athletics association, having a synthetic track does not mean automatically that you will get good athletes,” the minister stated at the event, adding that other systems must compliment the facility.
“We have to put our coaching systems in place, which I believe is lacking. We have to get all the coaches properly accredited, and we also have to get good systems of how we train people, what type of training we will be putting them on etc.,” Anthony held.
He had shared the exact view at the Athletics Association of Guyana’s Award Ceremony earlier this year where he said that he has noted the many appeals for the synthetic facility, but it “would not solve the problems in (of) local athletics.”
The construction of the facility was largely at the mulling stage then, but it has moved from that infancy to the actual identification of the site at Uitvlugt and the preparation of contracts for the various bids to begin work on the promised modern venue.
Anthony said at the schools’ nationals launch that if it is not completed in time for the hosting of the 50th Edition of the competition, then certainly it will be finished for the 2011 contest. He said the Olympic-sized swimming pool will be done for the meet.
As part of his belief that the synthetic facility would not solve the problems of local athletics, the minister revealed that the scientific literature on coaching and other aspects of athletics and sport in general, which is available at the Sports Library, is underused.
“My Ministry have set up a Sports Library that has a lot of books on athletics, how to coach, and the scientific way of doing athletics, some of the sports regiments that we can implement. But we have not been seeing people coming in to use the books,” Anthony revealed.
“So there are books that are lying there that people can take advantage of, but we still want to do things the old way. If we’re going to be competitive in the world of athletics, then we have got to think about the science of sports not the old way,” the minister concluded.