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Paradigm Shift?
By Rawle Welch
Out of the blue, a strange, but encouraging phenomenon has created a buzz within the sports community and that is more teams and athletes have been able to participate in regional and international competitions without having to endure the customary fatigue and snub.
Rawle Welch
Recently, a large contingent of athletes were able to attend the 1st South American Youth Games in Peru, boxing coach Sebert Blake has been chosen to attend an Olympic Solidarity Course in Hungary, the junior badminton team sojourned to Puerto Rico, the national ladies hockey team is currently in Argentina competing at the Pan Am Cup, a small contingent of athletes are in Palembang, Indonesia at the Islamic Solidarity Games, Winston Stoby just returned from a competition in the USA, amateur boxers slated to attend a tournament and training course in Kazakhstan and the list goes on.
However, the cost of attendance at quite a few of those events has been substantially borne by the international parent body and its local affiliates.
In our case, the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) seems to be the primary entity facilitating the travel and participation of many of those teams and athletes and while it is known that the Association has assisted in the past, the recent developments must be interpreted as a paradigm shift that should benefit our athletes.
Our athletes over the past 2-3 decades have been subjected to many disappointing episodes during their careers with many deciding to end theirs after being unable to endure the pain and suffering of sacrifice without rewards and it is the hope of many that even though the year 2013 saw many of our local teams and athletes being able to travel to compete, it is not just another figment of the imagination, but a new dispensation that signals Guyana’s readiness to follow the paths of Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and quite a few other outstanding counterparts in the Region.
The construction of a synthetic track, the imminent commencement of the long awaited FIFA GOAL Project and the restoration of community grounds all point to the new ambition of the respective authorities, but that must be facilitated by high class training for our athletes so that they could move from PB’s to medals.
That will involve all the requisite support to produce an Elite Athlete including making a more energetic effort to strenghten ties with Jamaica and closer to home Trinidad and Tobago in addition to adequate financial backing.
It is clear that our officials haven’t done enough to draw down on the successes that countries such as Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago are having, these two examples, especially the former are not settling for PB’s, but are pouring in substantial funding into sports that will almost certainly guarantee success.
Olympic Javelin champion Keyshorn Walcott, world champion Jehue Gordon and Olympic and world champions Usain Bolt and Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce just to name a few, have all been produced at a heavy cost, but look at the rewards for their respective countries, it proved that the cost of investing in them became miniscule when compared with the economic and other related spin-offs.
Our national teams and athletes have had measured success when compared with our Caribbean counterparts and while many of us believe that this country possess an abundance of naturally talented athletes, that natural endowment cannot suffice in this era of technological advancement.
One just has to recall the accurate predictions Australia fast bowler Glen McGrath made whenever they faced the West Indies.
McGrath on a few occasions predicted how and when he would dismiss one of the greatest batsmen the world has ever seen in Trinidadian Brian Lara, who had made so many runs against the Aussies in his career.
It was simply a case of studying his weaknesses and working perfectly on exploiting them to his advantage, but no one could dispute the fact that Lara wasn’t a genius of a batsman.
That is what technology does, ask Bolt and others whose flaws were worked on by their respective coaches and corrected.
Natural talent could only take you so far after that it is a matter of being supplied with the support and working with a high class coaching staff to take you to the Elite Level.
PB’s even though it is an encouraging achievement is not enough, especially when there isn’t a vision to take it past that.
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