Athletics sustain momentum and growth

Jan 09, 2013 Sports

By Edison Jefford
There is absolutely no doubt that local track and field has sustained a busy schedule domestically and internationally last year following the new Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) proposal to robustly expose athletes and generate corporate interest in the sport.

Kadecia Baird

When former national sprinter and now Deputy Superintendent of Police, Colin Boyce took over the AAG in 2009 from years of dormancy and ineptitude, he announced that his primary aim will be ensuring athletics occupy a prominent place on the local calendar of sport.
His simple, but effective plan was to ensure that Guyana competes internationally more regularly and to add signature calendar events that would attract corporate support. He accomplished those goals with the sport and athletes benefitting from the infusion.
Using last year as the climax of what has happened under Boyce’s first tenure as President of the AAG, would indicate several enchanting positives for the sport that need to continue if track and field in Guyana is to occupy a place among the other top disciplines.
Taking a closer look at what has been one of the main bugbears for the development of sport that is lack of sponsorship; Boyce was able to reintroduce the corporate community to athletics which is one of his major achievements as head of the association.
The Digicel-sponsored Under-23 Championships is a new initiative that was started under in his tenure and continued with much success last year. Four athletes represented Guyana at the South American U-23 Championships in Sao Paulo, Brazil as a result.
It tied in with Boyce’s well-publicised aim to expose athletes, and gave Running Braves Athletic Club, Stephan James, the chance to continue his global ascendancy that started in 2011 where he made the final of every international meet he competed in.
In Brazil, James ran 46.52 seconds to break the national junior record while taking bronze in the 400m race in September. His feat would not have been possible without Boyce’s strategic plan to expose the best local talents that are exceptional enough to produce results.
Chavez Ageday also competed at the South American U-23 Championship, running 10.65 which is his personal best time as a junior in the 100m for a bronze medal as well. Guyana’s tally of the two bronze medals was unprecedented in South America before. Cindy Fraser (Long Jump) and Natrena Hooper (Triple Jump, 400m) were the two female athletes on the team.
Continuing with corporate injection into athletics, the distance athletes for two years enjoyed the return of the AinLim and Courts 10km races, which were reintroduced in 2011 and continued in 2012 as circuit events leading up to the South American 10km race. Financially, both events give athletes something to look forward to near the end of the athletic season.
Then there is the President’s/Jefford Track and Field Classic, which was conceptualised to give athletics its signature calendar event annually, and improve the financial standing of clubs with lucrative cash prizes for the top three clubs and cash prizes for athletes.
The AAG-sanctioned Inter-Services Annual Athletic Championships (ISAAC) was among those events. It didn’t fail to produce some extraordinary performances with Rupert Perry the headline act with his 9.90 hand-timed 100m at the Guyana Defence Force Ground.
The National Junior and Senior Championships and Three Development Meets all gave athletes a robust season last year and generally lifted the standards of athletics in Guyana. Not to mention the exposure of Perry, Quinse Clarke and Winston George at the IAAF High Performance Centre in Jamaica last year.

Andrea Foster

On the subject of international performance, the United States-based Kadecia Baird permanently put Guyana on the map again with her 51.04 seconds 400m time that brought her a silver medal at the World Junior Championships in Barcelona, Spain in July. Stephan James had also run his personal best time of 46.99 in the 400m Heats before his smashing performance in Brazil months later.
James also represented Guyana at the CARIFTA Games in Bermuda where he finished sixth in the 400m final in April. Tevin Garraway made both the 100m and 200m finals as well, which as was expected, confirmed the development of Guyana’s juniors.
But the high point of the CARIFTA Games has to be Running Braves’, Andrea Foster’s 4:57.28 time in the 1500m that got her a bronze medal at the prestigious regional junior meet. Foster, the daughter of senior sprinter, Alisha Fortune, ensured that Guyana continued its tradition of medals at the distance level of the Games.
Davin Fraser and Samuel Fraser had also competed at the CARIFTA Games, capping the largest team Guyana had ever sent to the competition.
At the senior level, Aliann Pompey represented Guyana at the IAAF World Indoors in Turkey in March placing third in her Heats with 54.63s along with US-based counterpart, Jeremy Bascom, who ran 6.77 seconds in the semi-final of the 60m.
Pompey, Bascom and Winston George, who had qualified for the London Olympic Games, while based in Guyana, ensured representation at the 2012 Olympiad where the country was left still in search of that elusive Olympic medal after modest performances.
Pompey was eighth in the 400m semi-final in 52.58 seconds, while George was fifth place in the male Heats in 46.86 seconds. Bascom placed sixth in his Heats in 10.31 seconds. It was Pompey’s fourth Olympics and the first for George and Bascom.
Whether it’s exposing athletes internationally on merit, initiating new competitions, championing corporate infusion for the sport and exposing coaches including Lyndon Wilson, Julian Edmonds and Robert Chisholm, Boyce’s first tenure as AAG President has certainly lifted the sport out of the dark era of ineptitude, neglect and blatant nonchalance.