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Proper and adequate facilities vital for continued development and dominance
By Franklin Wilson
It is no secret that proper, modern and adequate facilities are vital prerequisites for the suitable development of a nation’s athletes in a modern and competitive world.
A look around the Caribbean and further afield would underscore and hammer home in no uncertain manner, the need to have good facilities.
This is a simple football stadium, to the left of the field are two small multi Purpose Courts.
Guyanese athletes have been doing fairly well by dint of hard work, commitment and a bit of luck but not necessarily because we are blessed and provided with the requisite facilities to train and develop.
However, the time has come, like yesterday, for us to vigorously move in the direction of erecting proper facilities for our youths. This should be a given and must be seen as an important aspect of nation building.
The awe and joy our athletes experience whenever they are competing overseas must be felt at home but this would only be a reality if the relevant power brokers are sincere and honestly want to take us to the next level.
Recently, the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) through assistance from the South American Sports Organisation (ODESUR) was able to send a contingent of 23 athletes and seven officials to the inaugural South American Youth Games held in Lima, Peru.
Guyana competed in seven of the 19 disciplines that were contested; fourteen (14)
The Olympic Size Swimming and Warm Up pool where the 1South American Youth Games swimming competition was held. This facility also hosted the 3rd FINA World Junior Championships, August 16-21, 2011.
nations were represented.
All the facilities that were used were top class, and yes, our athletes were awe inspired by the experiences of competing in world class facilities, many of them for the first time in their fledgling careers; a few of them are used to high standards, not necessarily at home though.
We have a top class cricket stadium that has now turned into a facility that is being used for multiple activities including football, rugby, hockey, and athletics, but this is certainly not enough.
The Olympic size swimming pool is another one of the additions but it was done without a warm up pool which is now under construction and yes, it has cost us in excess of 581M Guyana dollars and the warm up pool is anticipated to cost us US$288,000 with Civil Works standing at 37.5M Guyana dollars.
Coming on stream in the near future would be the all weather athletics track at Leonora on the West Coast of Demerara and that facility would also have a full sized football field. So there is some bit of movement with regard to proper and adequate facilities, but is this enough? Certainly it isn’t.
This would not be the last piece on the issue of proper and adequate facilities. We feel it necessary to share some of our photos of facilities in Peru and hope it would stimulate good debate and action. What was found out too was the fact that many of the facilities are owned, controlled and maintained by the various municipalities in Lima and one suspects that that is the case in others also.
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