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After ‘Nationals’, what?
By Edison Jefford
The Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) is habitually silent on what it intends to do with the plethora of
George Norton
youth and junior talent from every region in Guyana that was on show two weeks ago at the National Stadium during the National Schools’ Championships.
President of the AAG, Aubrey Hutson, was privy to the abundance of talent on display, since the association assisted in managing the technical aspects of the Championships. But again, what the association plans to do with such information, if anything at all, remains a mystery.
Prior to the commencement of the Championships, the AAG was seemingly interested in having a major role in the overall management of the event, despite its lack of human resource and what has become an inability to mobilise major stakeholder support.
The ambition of the association was introduced when former President of the Mercury Fast Lane Athletics Club, George Norton, who is now the Minister of Public Health, had indicated that it is time the association “take over” the management of the Championships.
Norton made the remarks at the Closing Ceremony of the AAG South American 10k Road Race in the National Park. The context in which Norton spoke suggested that the association played no role in the Championships, which was inaccurate.
It was obvious that the Honourable Minister was not properly informed. It is difficult for me to blame Norton entirely because of how well I know him. I sought out Norton to help my cousin, who was going blind as a result of a fungus in his eyes, years ago. The optometrist is one of the main reasons my cousin still has his full sight.
Norton is an avid sport enthusiast, who I believe was deliberately misled to create a mischievous agenda.
Aubrey Hutson
Whoever informed Norton before his closing remarks did not tell him about the role of the AAG in making the National Schools’ Championships a success.
Context is everything. It was important for me to introduce this subject by highlighting that at the psychological level, the association seemed more concerned with event management, as opposed to structured development programmes to guarantee Guyana’s athletic success.
This is the real work of the AAG. The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary. Having hosted the event, the National Schools’ Championships, which brought together athletes from all across Guyana, for one week of competition, the association should have been able to at least compile a database of top performers.
The Ministry of Education and Guyana Teachers’ Union did the association a favour by allowing it to see over 1500 athletes from every region. Given that platform, the athletic association simply had to piggyback on the efforts of the two entities to proliferate its work.
The AAG holds the answer to the proverbial question of what happens after ‘Nationals’. But the focus of the association is not fixed on this kind of work. Instead, the association believes that by posturing at a management level, it can somehow be seen as effective.
That is a misplaced perception and a misunderstanding of function. It is a similar position to the former GFF that failed to piggyback on the work of the Digicel Schools’ Football Tournament to ensure that Guyana’s football future is secured with solid junior programmes.
Digicel is doing all the work to bring the teams and players together from all parts of Guyana. A feat that costs millions, as does the National Schools Championship, but the national associations do not take full advantage of having such patronage.
The GFF has to simply identify the talent and create ways to provide consistent training, so that players consistently graduate to the next level. This is not done. The defaulter is the associations that miss great opportunities to advance its development programmes.
The synchronisation of the grassroots work of Digicel, The Ministry of Education and Guyana Teachers’ Union, for example, with hosting uniquely national events and the post-event effort of associations is critical to developing a national sports culture.
The associations ought deviate from the culture of believing its role is events management alone and begin to set its sight on the real work of developing athletes. It has the support of some of the magnates that host events. The associations have to do their work.
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