Latest update November 26th, 2024 1:00 AM
North G/T district retain swimming title
By Sean Devers
The swimming segment of this year’s National School’s cycling, swimming & track & field Championships got off to an inauspicious 2 hour and 24-minute late start at the Castallani Pool yesterday and ended prematurely at 18:22hrs due to poor lighting with the much anticipated Boys and Girls team relays being abandoned.
Brittany Van Lange
Once again District 11 (North Georgetown), ram-packed with national swimmers exposed to better training facilities than their out-of-town counterparts, dominated to unofficially retain their title. Up to 20:00hrs last night the official results were unavailable since the scores had not yet been fully tallied. However, all indications suggested District 10 (Upper Demerara/ Kwakwani) had clinched the 2nd spot ahead of District 12 (East Georgetown) in 3rd place.
National swimmer Britany Van Lange who turns 14 next week, showed why she is Guyana’s fastest female in the pool in her age group by easily winning her three races to help pile up the points for North Georgetown, who has ruled the roost in National schools’ swimming in the recent past.
Van Lange, clocked 1:06.94 seconds in the100 meters under-16 Free Style race as the Bishops High School lass made the 25-meter Pool look even smaller than it is with her energized display. Van Lange who has Bartica roots, had earlier warmed up for her excellent day in the water with an emphatic victory in the 50-meter Breast Stroke U-16 event.
With 12 swimmers among their 18-member squad enjoying National experience at various levels, North Georgetown proved superior to the other 15 districts on show as National swimmers Van Lange, Ronaldo Rodrigues, Travis Henry, Mark Jardim, Serrano Gonsalves, Accalla Khan, Soroya Simmons, Steffi De Nobrega all registered convincing wins in their events.
A small but vociferous crowd, which waited until 12:24hrs for the competition, scheduled to begin at 10:00hrs, were further frustrated towards the end of the day’s proceedings when a power outage affected the Homestretch Avenue facility. Even when electricity was restored, the officials deemed it was too dark and dangerous to continue after a few other races were contested leaving swimmers and their supporters disappointed that the feature relays had to be cancelled.
We are the champions we think! The North G/Town District Team at Castallani Pool last evening.
Sixteen-year-old School of the Nations student De Nobrega also impressed with three convincing wins in the under-18 category to give North Georgetown District a solid foundation to again win the overall championships which began in 1959 with Georgetown winning the first two championships in the city.
Georgetown won 10 other titles between 1965 and 1979 before the city contingent was divided in the sub zones in 1980 when North Georgetown won the title at Uitvlugt in West Demerara.
While Upper Demerara/Kwakwani took three consecutive titles from 2004, North Georgetown retuned to their winning ways by taking overall championship honors in the last three championships. Yesterday, their star studded Swim team put them in a good position to continue their overall dominance.
On a day in which the Cycling Road race also began late and encountered traffic problems on the East Coast of Demerara, several parents yesterday expressed disgust at the late commencement of the swimming event and the inadequate seating facilities for spectators and athletes at the Castallani Pool.
“Nobody these days seem to care about proper standards in sports in Guyana and this (late starts to events) has become the norm with the ‘this is Guyana so what’ attitude taking over our country,” an irate parent told Kaieteur Sport.
Officials tallying the points also expressed dissatisfaction at the seating accommodation in the ‘records keeping area’ where one official said she had to sit on a table all day.
The opening ceremony of the championships, organized by the Guyana Teachers Union and the Ministry of Education, was held at the Guyana National Stadium yesterday afternoon. Action continues today before the curtains on this year’s event come down on Friday.
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