Latest update April 24th, 2026 12:40 AM
Sport earned continuous support from Govt.- Nascimento
Members of the national rugby squad seen going through their phases yesterday at the National Park.
President of the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) Christopher ‘Kit’ Nascimento in a hard hitting conversation with Kaieteur Sport yesterday at the National Park said that the entity and the team by virtue of their respective performances have earned the continuous support of the Government.
Nascimento, who at the time was witnessing the national team going through their paces under the guidance of Coach Theodore Henry for the upcoming IRB World Sevens Series in Las Vegas, revealed that he was extremely peeved with the non response from the Ministry of Sport to his letter seeking assistance to get the team to the tournament which brings together the best exponents of Sevens rugby.
“We were faced with a situation where the IRB had written to us stating that every member of the touring party had to be covered by insurance for a minimum of 1,500 pounds and when I sought to get a local insurance company to undertake the responsibility of insuring each member for that amount, they all said that they were in no position to do so,” Nascimento informed.
Nascimento said that after the local Companies had refused to undertake the task of insuring the members he wrote the international body telling them of the situation and they responded by saying that if that was the case then Guyana will have withdraw and be replaced by another team, but he immediately replied stating that they’ve earned the right to be in Las Vegas by virtue of winning the tournament that qualified them to represent North America and the Caribbean.
He indicated that he immediately wrote the Minister of Sport Dr. Frank Anthony informing him of the development, but according to him he has received no response to date.
Nascimento told this newspaper that in the absence of a reply from the Minister he was forced to make a final appeal to the IRB pointing out that if countries such as Guyana with very slender resources and who’ve earned the right to be on the field with the very best in the world then the Board should consider providing support.
“They’ve since responded positively to my appeal and with the assistance of Peter Abdool of Abdool & Abdool Associates we’ve managed to secure full coverage with an International Insurance Company that has helped restore our position in the tournament,” Nascimento said.
The GRFU Boss also lamented the lack of support for the team’s preparations from the Government, adding that they’ve compiled with all the requirements to qualify for assistance, but to date have had no response with the team just weeks away from leaving for the prestigious event.
“We’ve written the National Sports Commission setting out our schedule for the year, submitted our audited accounts for 2009 and will be doing so for 2010 shortly, while we also submitted a comprehensive report which was sent to the IRB as well projecting our development plans for 2011-12 which completes our five-year programme. Our schools development programme is also included, while we currently employ three full time youth development officers and this to my mind shows we are delivering on the field and administratively too,” Nascimento felt.
All the above achievements according to Nascimento must merit Government’s attention, respect and support.
Meanwhile, the team continues to intensify preparations at the National Park daily.
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