THE LOCATION OF THE SYNTHETIC ATHLETIC TRACK

Aug 27, 2012 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

An all weather track is a necessary but by no means a sufficient condition to ensure the international success of local athletes.
Trinidad and Tobago has had synthetic tracks since the late 1970’s. They have however only produced a handful of international track and field stars.
As such, more than a track is needed. A tradition in athletics is needed. Improved training is needed. Unfortunately this cannot be found in Guyana, no matter how much we may want to believe that we have the sort of coaches to work miracles.
Guyanese athletes need international exposure. Having them remain in Guyana will only stifle their talents. There is insufficient competition and inadequate facilities to allow an athlete based here fulltime to make the international grade. We have to identify those with talent and send them abroad to hone their skills. This is a simple as it gets.
Guyana’s two most outstanding track and field stars, James Wren Gilkes and June Griffith, both made it to the top of the athletics world because they went abroad.
As such, the construction of a synthetic track must not be seen as a panacea to our failures to win an Olympic track and field medal. However, with a synthetic track we can allow our athletes the opportunity to train on a surface that matches what they will have to compete on internationally. This will allow those with potential to develop and be spotted more quickly.
Without the track, we would not be able to do these things and this is why it is so important to have such a surface established in Guyana, whether it is located in the Rupununi or in Georgetown.
The Government of Guyana has done what was promised to our athletes for decades. It has begun construction of an all-weather synthetic track which can but only boost athletic prowess in Guyana and help identify those for further training. Our athletes will now be given that opportunity that was promised to them since the 1970’s but which they never saw. It is also likely that having built such a track, that the government will also have an idea of what are the next steps that have to be taken.
We seem to have a problem though. Every time, the government does something good, every time they build something to benefit the people, there are naysayers who come out of the woodwork with criticisms.
The latest criticism concerns the location of the synthetic athletic track. This is a moot point and has been addressed before.
In identifying the location for the athletic track, a number of specifications had to be fulfilled. First, there has to be adequate land space. Most of the grounds in Guyana are small and cannot accommodate a facility of this nature.
Secondly, the facility would need to be fenced and with suitable seating facilities for when there is an athletic meeting. You cannot spend hundreds of millions of dollars on such a track and not have it secure. As such a fenced facility is needed as well as one that could eventually be upgraded to a fulltime athletic stadium to accommodate spectators.
This immediately rules out Durban Park. The land there is not enclosed nor is there seating. In addition, the land there is in a basin and it would take tens of millions to sand-fill that location and many further years for the land to settle before a track could be laid there. Guyana does not have the liberty of time. If we want to produce that Olympic champion in the next ten years, the track has to be built now.
Thirdly, most of the grounds that could have been used for such a facility are privately owned. The government, for example, tried to obtain the former Georgetown Cricket Club Ground to construct an athletic facility. But they were unsuccessful. Moving towards compulsory acquisition would have been resisted and led to lengthy legal proceedings.
As such the government had no choice but to go to the present location which has the space and which can over time, be developed into a track and field stadium.
Those who are critical of the government’s decision to locate the synthetic track in West Demerara may not be totally oblivious to these considerations as they have us believe. The real objection may be based on the fact that the track should have been located in the city.
But development, including sporting development, cannot be about one area alone. It has to be nationwide and in this regard it is a good that West Demerara will have an international facility. But perhaps, the Albion Sports Complex may have been a better location.

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THE LOCATION OF THE SYNTHETIC ATHLETIC TRACK

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