Bayley overlooked again

Oct 19, 2014 Sports

By Edison Jefford
The Sports Department of the Guyana Police Force is demanding that the Athletic

Police’s Kevin Bayley eases across the finish-line at the Inter-Services Annual Athletics Championships (ISAAC) last week against an impressive field. The AAG continues to overlook Bayley for national selection.

Association of Guyana (AAG) consider Kevin Bayley for national selection following what has certainly been a prolific year for the 23 year old middle distance athlete.
Bayley has emerged this year as the nation’s top 800m runner, putting together top performances against top athletes. However, the AAG continues to overlook the athlete despite his ascendancy. The Police Sports Department has taken note of this trend.
“Bayley’s outstanding performances for the year running unbeaten, should have served as an eye to the selectors of the Athletics Association of Guyana, yet he continues to be overlooked for the overseas engagements,” Police said in a statement sent to Kaieteur Sport.
Bayley has had good success this year, but really raised eyebrows when he thrashed star-studded fields at the Boyce and Jefford Classic in August and Joint Services last week. In August, Bayley beat Trinidad and Tobago’s, Mark London in the 800m to win the international event, which also featured athletes from Grenada among Guyana’s finest athletes.
London is on scholarship in the United States, and is an international representative for Trinidad at meets across the world; last week, Bayley relegated Cleveland Forde, Ornesto Thomas, Trevor Scotland among others with a blitz 1:54.7, the fastest time this year.
“At the age of 23, the question to be asked here is what more does this prolific athlete has to do to win the hearts of the selectors,” the Police Sports Department questioned, adding that Bayley should have been considered for the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games, slated for November 14-30 in Mexico.
With the exception of Winston George, the Police are contending that their athletes continue to be sidelined when it comes to national selection. “If a comparison is to be made with selection of previous teams, the logical conclusion will be that Police athletes apart from George are always being bypassed,” it said.
The AAG has named George to compete at CAC along with United States-based, Stephan James, Adam Harris and Jeremy Bascom; Harris and Bascom continues to represent Guyana despite not showing any interest in competing in Guyana. The two sprinters are phantom athletes to the track and field community in Guyana, but continue to get the nod of the AAG that hosted a low-keyed National Senior Championships a few weeks ago.