GOOD NEWS FOR OUR ATHLETES!

Mar 20, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

---

There was a time when a great many promises were made to our athletes, but these promises were never fulfilled. These promises remained dreams, something that the country’s athletes could only imagine and wish for but never quite have.
Promises for example were made about constructing a cycling track, an athletics track, and an Olympic-sized swimming pool. None of these promises ever materialised but a great many people got excited when these things were said.
Having been led to believe that these things would have been built, and then not seeing them being built, left lots of persons disillusioned by politics and a great many of our sportsmen and women apathetic about the sort of support they would receive from the government. Many an athlete also complained that it was the lack of facilities that prevented them from developing further, pointing to the example of Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago which had these sorts of facilities.
Guyana now has a national stadium for cricket. It is a fast-drying facility, and therefore we no longer have to be embarrassed when a few drizzles rule out play. We have hosted matches for Cricket World Cup and for the 20/20 World Cup and even though there were some disparaging comments from foreign journalists about the conditions of our car park, there were no complaints about the on-field conditions.
But has it helped our local cricket? Having a national stadium certainly means that Guyanese fans will not be left out of the hosting of international cricket matches. It means that we Guyanese fans will not be denied the opportunity of seeing international cricket. But the national stadium, which has also been used to host international football and rugby matches, has not led to the raising of the standards of local cricket.
What will help will be better training facilities, something that the local cricket board has been concentrating on, and which if also replicated by cricket clubs, should professionalise the sports and ensure that as better facilities are built, standards are raised.
Can we therefore conclude that the mere building of facilities will not necessarily increase the standards of local athletes? There is no doubt that cycling, athletics and swimming will enjoy improved standards by having international-styled facilities. Swimmers will shortly have an international-sized swimming pool in which to train. This can only help them to get better and become better prepared for international competition. Having a synthetic track will now mean that our local athletes can do more than just dream of international glory. They can prepare themselves to do well in these competitions because their training will no longer be restricted to grass and to the dry season. The decision to build a synthetic track is therefore going to make a big difference.
There is no longer the same level of disillusionment of the past when politicians raised the expectations of sportsmen and women but never delivered what was promised because the country was broke and could hardly feed itself much less have funds for constructing international swimming pools, national stadiums and synthetic tracks.
The government must therefore be commended for not promising our sportsmen what it cannot deliver. The announcement that Guyana will soon have a synthetic track for our athletes is like a dream come true for athletes. For a long time many of them lived with the hope that one day they would benefit from having such a facility. Their better days passed and there was none, but at least the younger generation has the opportunity of being able to have such opportunities.
While no other promises have been made, there remains an urgent need to improve existing facilities. For example, the training ground for rugby at the National Park floods easily and therefore restricts training. A decision should be taken to either raise that ground or to find another ground for rugby training. There are other grounds where this can take place.
Our cyclists have been kept back because there is no velodrome. This is something that should be considered and one of the secure locations should be identified as somewhere where the government can build a velodrome for our cyclists who have to train on the road, where there is always a risk of accidents.
A great deal of progress has been made and no one expects that the government can ensure overnight that there are facilities for every single sport. But certainly, it has shown that it is not into the game of making promises which remain just that.
It has kept its promises, even as sporting associations feel that more should be done.

---

---