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Bartica wants to ‘bring home the bacon’
– mulls first National Schools’ C/ships title
With what he described as “excellent” support from the Education Department, Regional Office and the community ahead of the National Schools’ Championships, Leon Stewart believes that Bartica, District 7, could ‘bring home the whole bacon’ this year.
Bartica has never won the overall title at the National Schools’ Cycling, Swimming and Track and Field Championships, which is set to stage its 53rd edition during November 19-22, but Stewart, the Sports Chairman and Team Manager of District 7, is quite certain that that the team could do so with a consistent performance.
Leon Stewart
“Basically, I think we will make a run for the overall Championship this year; our athletes have been training very, very hard because they know we want to do better than last year,” Stewart told Kaieteur Sport yesterday.
Bartica placed fourth overall last year; after exceptional performances in the swimming, cycling and teachers competitions, they were let down in the track and field contest when they brought a disappointing ninth, which forced them into fourth place.
“Our strength is in the teachers’ competition, which we have won twice already and swimming, where we placed third last year. If we do well in the cycling and athletics, we can challenge for the overall title, which is what we want to do,” Stewart assessed.
“This year we can win the teachers’ competition and persons in the community have been volunteering with the track and field athletes. If we can place in the top three in all the various competitions, we can win overall,” he continued, adding that support from the stakeholders in the District has been “excellent”.
Bartica, a mining community, is usually well supported for ‘Nationals’ and they usually transform that support into decent results. Stewart identified some athletes and events that he believes will be the trump card for them this year at ‘Nationals’.
He believes that Fiona Mentis and Carmel Williams will be forces to reckon with in the Teachers Under-40 long jumps and 80-metre track event. Stewart informed that both Mentis and Williams returned record-breaking performances last year.
According to Stewart, Clifton Bobb, in the teachers’ Under-21 field events, Festus Benn in the 90 metre and long jump U-40 events and Hilbert Knights in the U-40 shot-putt and discus events are also among those teachers expected to perform for Bartica.
Meanwhile, he noted that Shawn Caesar (field events) boys U-20, Derika Marshall (100, 200 and 400m) U-12, Keifon Jack (100, 200m) boys U-10 and Cornell Playtner (100, 200, long and triple jumps) U-16 are some of the outstanding athletes for track and field.
In the cycling events, he is anticipating good performances from Corin Chase (800, 1000 and 1500m), Victoria Wong (1500, 2000 and 3000m) and Rondel Lopes (1000, 2000 and 3000m) races, while Daniel Jeffrey (50-metre free and back strokes), Recia Toris (50 metres free and back strokes), Brittina Simmons (50 metres free and back strokes) and Andrew Simmons (50 metres butterfly, breast stroke and 50-metre freestyle) are to once again help them mount the podium in the swimming competition that will be held at the Castellani Pool.
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