Letter to the Sports Editor

Nov 11, 2015 Sports

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Amy Grant to seek Independent Inquiry from GOA

Dear Editor,
Here are the facts of the matter which concerns National junior swimmer Amy Grant who will now approach the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) to intervene in a matter that we believe the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) is being less than professional in handling.
Amy is challenging the association to justify why she has not been credited with a National Record in the Girls 13-14 50m SC Butterfly which she swam at the July Sprint Meet/Goodwill 2015 Team Trials on July 11th, 2015 at the National Aquatic Centre, Liliendaal.
We had sent a mail to the Secretary of GASA since July and according to the minutes of the meeting held in September, the Secretary did not submit our letter to the Council. After a media release on the matter came out, my club’s Executive members then decided to represent the case and they sent a letter of petition for the record.
On Tuesday 6th October, 2015 we received a mail from the President of Silver Sharks Swim Club – the club Amy is a member of. According to the President, a decision on the issue was made at GASA’s Council Meeting.
However, for some reason or the other, GASA has not sent any formal response on the decision to us to date. Mr. Beaton has sent me a mail which the club’s assistant representative has sent him and it indicates that the decision not to uphold records was made at the Technical meeting.
However, the Secretary of GASA, who is also a member of Silver Sharks Swim Club did not know, along with three others from two other clubs. That means out of five clubs, members from three different clubs who were at the Technical meeting did not know.
Most importantly there was no minutes for the Technical meeting to prove validity of it being discussed and decided upon at that Technical meeting. We wrote Mr. Beaton on October 15th, asking him to send a request to GASA’s Council for a formal response on their decision. His reply was that “He will let me know their decision as soon as it is available.”
His mail did not indicate that he or the reps would make the effort to seek a formal response from GASA’s Council. Hence we can’t say what decision was taken because we did not receive either the minutes of that meeting or any formal response from GASA.
We believe that GASA’s Council has not acted in a professional way towards the issue from the start and even to this moment. As mentioned before, since July to now we can’t get an official response from GASA. The term “definitive” was used by our club rep in her report to our club President. We have no idea of GASA’s official decision .We had instances when the Secretary of GASA did not know if she was acting in the capacity of Secretary or as a club parent although she was giving us directives to write her concerning the matter so that she can table it for the Council Meeting.
Then there is the matter of deciding on such a technical issue. GASA does not have a Technical Committee! However, according to our club rep. Ms. Campbell, the matter was decided on at the Council Meeting. That means the majority of Council members were involved in whatever was decided on. In other words, the people who decided have no technical knowledge to make such decisions.
With regard to the level of representation we have received from Amy’s club so far, we are most definitely unsatisfied with Silver Shark’s role in the entire matter. They have been very unprofessional from the start. When we wrote to the club rep. Mr. Leon Seaton in July requesting of him to take the case forward and ‘representing it’ he did not reply to our mail.
A few days later we telephoned him and asked him if he had received the mail and he responded in the positive but told us that we should talk to the referee ourselves. We had to remind him of his duty and what it entails but still he did not take the matter to Council.
Subsequently, we had a media release about the unfairness in the sport. We were then invited to a meeting where the Executives of Silver Shark decided to represent the matter. We strongly feel that they came on board to MIS-REPRESENT us to protect themselves and the Council. The president and two club reps did not know how to approach GASA’s Council with the matter so they asked us to write a letter petitioning the case since we had the knowledge of the rules and conduct of swimming.
It was also decided by everyone at the meeting, that should any changes be made to the letter, then they would seek our approval before sending it to GASA Council because Amy Grant is a minor.
Two emails were sent to Ms. Tricia Campbell, the female rep. reminding her not to send any correspondence on behalf of Amy since she is a minor and as such we have the absolute right to act on her behalf for all matters pertaining to her as we are her legal guardians.
On October 2nd, Ms. Campbell emailed us to tell us that the mail was sent off. The Council Meeting was to be held on October 1st. That response confirmed our dreadful feeling that they had achieved their purpose of MIS-REPRESENTING us.
We did not see the letter until the afternoon of October 3rd when Amy’s father was asked to attend an impromptu meeting to which he had to be present in half an hour. The letter was dated 30th September. That meant they had enough time to send us the mail before it was sent to GASA’s Council.
This level of unfair and unprofessional treatment has prompted us to now seek the intervention of the Guyana Olympic Association for them to conduct an Independent Inquiry.
We are now not concerned at all about being victimized since that has already happened. We were told that the coaches would not coach Amy. We know the situation is not going to get better in this regard as we have seen what other swimmers have experienced after their parents have disagreed with certain GASA Council members.
Amy would not have been training at the National Aquatic Centre had it not been for Ms. Stephanie Fraser and the Executive Members of the Dorado Speed Swim Club who have extended their hospitality to us to have Amy train with them.
We do not believe the majority of GASA’s Council has been professional as they ought to be in this case or generally.
Sincerely,
The Grants.

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