Latest update January 18th, 2025 7:00 AM
GASA hosts Olympic Day Activity at Colgrain Pool
The Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) on Saturday observed Olympic Day with an activity aimed at educating students about the Olympic Movement in general and swimming in particular. The activity was held at the Colgrain Pool, through funding from the Guyana Olympic Association, Igloo Ice-cream and Farfan & Mendes.
MOST IMPRESSIVE STUDENT – Ms. Theoni Perreira receiving her prize from GASA President Alex Graham.
Participants were drawn from Christ Church Secondary School, Marian Academy, St. John’s Community High School, Mae’s Schools, East Street Nursery, Guyana Industrial Training Centre, New Concord Academy, New Guyana School and Kingston Community High School.
GASA President Alex Graham welcomed all participants and swimmers, explaining that the theme for Olympic Day was “Move, Learn and Discover” and GASA’s sub-theme for the activity, “Swimming – from Recreation to Competitions”.
By promoting the event in schools, GASA is encouraging students to take their recreational swimming in the creeks to another level, by getting involved in swimming as a competitive sport.
Opening remarks were offered by Mr. K. A. Juman-Yassin, President of the Guyana Olympic Association who told the students that Olympic Day is celebrated by over two hundred countries on June 23rd of each year and gave some background information on the Olympic Movement and this event.
He encouraged the students to make the most of the opportunity being presented to them and invited all present to participate in the traditional Olympic Day Walk/Jog/Run which took place yesterday.
Before the start of the formal programme, and between the scheduled items, students were challenged on their general knowledge of Olympic trivia and received rare GASA pins for correct answers. GASA and GOA Vice-President Dr. Karen Pilgrim then explained the relationship between the GOA, GASA and swimming clubs. Also under the “Learn” theme, there was an exhibition of Olympic and swimming items, books and posters, along with handouts for student-athletes from the IOC website.
Competitive swimmers, including Niall Roberts who represented Guyana at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, demonstrated the four basic competitive swimming strokes – Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke and Freestyle, while recent National Awardee Coach Stephanie Fraser described the technical details of each stroke.
The students got a chance to get into the pool and demonstrate their own ability. Some of them had previous swimming experience while, for some, this was their first time in the pool. They were treated to a mini-coaching session, led by the National Swimmers.
Students also joined forces with the competitive swimmers for a fun and exciting relay. Swimming coaches said that they were impressed with many of the children at the event and thought that among them were some very talented athletes. A special prize was given to the most impressive student – Ms. Theoni Perreira.
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