Letter to the Sports Editor…Fraser flopped in understanding my analysis

Dec 19, 2015 Sports

---

Dear Editor,
It is not usual that I respond to critiques of my work, which I am often open to accepting once they are justified. But when there are attempts to mislead the public and deliberate efforts to influence negative opinions, I see a need to offer clarifications less the misrepresentations of fact become truth to those who are not analytical.
Mr. Editor, the Head of the Physical Education Department at the Unit of Allied Arts within the Ministry of Education, Mr. Nicholas Fraser responded to an article I wrote last Sunday. Fraser in his attempt to represent the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) misunderstood the central themes of my article.
But why does Fraser see the need to respond to my analysis? As far as I am aware, Fraser is not an Executive, or mere member of the AAG, neither is he their Public Relations Officer. Mr.  Editor, my perspective last Sunday had two overarching themes: (a) That the AAG is failing, and has failed, to implement post-Nationals programmes to aid in the development of youth and junior athletes and (b) Someone may have misinformed the Minister of Public Health, George Norton as to the role of the AAG in Nationals, causing the Minister to launch an unnecessary advocacy for the association to “take over” the Championships.
Mr. Editor, I did not mention Mr. Fraser in my article, yet he sees the need to respond to me; yet he sees the need to become the arbitrary mouth-piece of the AAG to attempt a defence of the themes listed above.  The question here is why.  Could it be that the ‘someone’ I referred to as misinforming the Minister is Fraser?  Could it be that Fraser’s conscience is laden with guilt, hence his response?
Please allow me to expose the mischievous nature of administrators like Fraser. This gentleman sits on the Management Committee of the National Schools’ Championships as Head of the Physical Education Department at the Unit of Allied Arts.  Notwithstanding, Fraser is telling the Public that the track at the National Stadium had an extra 17m. Could you imagine, Mr. Editor the Head of Physical Education sitting through the National Schools’ Championships with this information and is only now revealing such?
Mr. Editor as the one who is responsible for information at the National Schools’ Championships I want to categorically debunk Mr. Fraser’s claim as untrue and false.  There was a problem with two lanes as discovered on the first day of the Championships at the Stadium.  This problem was immediately rectified following that discovery and the Championships proceeded unhindered.  It means that none of the final results were affected by this issue.
Mr. Editor, if we are to believe Fraser then it would mean that the winning time of 10. 7 seconds returned in the Boys U-18 100m Final is recorded for 117m instead, for example. It means therefore, when calculations are done, the time really should have been around 9. 2 seconds over 100m. With that 9.2 seconds time, Mr. Editor, we have an athlete who is faster than Usain Bolt.  The same analogy holds for all the other distances.  The claim of athletes running an extra 17m is simply untrue.
But could you imagine if this were to be true, you would have the Head of Physical Education in Guyana and the AAG President, Aubrey Hutson present each day at the Championships with this knowledge and their position was to keep it secret until an opportunity like this arises for them to mislead the Public.  These are the types of officials who are preventing the progress of sport in Guyana.
Fraser also spoke about international standards.  Mr.  Editor several aspects of an athletics event makes it international.  But for our sake, we are still recording hand-times in Guyana.  The Fully Automatic Timing System (FATS) that the Guyana Olympic Association handed over to the AAG is not used. Meets at the synthetic track are recorded in hand time.  The AAG has made several attempts to get the FATS working to no avail.  If we are to take Mr. Fraser seriously then it means that nationwide we would have to have electronic times recorded from Inter-House to Nationals, which simply is not possible now.  What we have, we use, but it does not discredit performance as Fraser would have you believe.
On the construct of Mr. Fraser’s recommendations and working group I won’t divulge details of why that failed to the Public, but I will reiterate what the Guyana Teachers Union said on national television that when they met with Minister Roopnarine, the honourable Minister had no knowledge of such a document or such a group.  It means therefore that Mr. Fraser’s efforts were without the authorisation of the subject Minister.  In addition, Mr. Fraser made some other recommendations. It is very noteworthy that these recommendations came in the context of his response to my article, but not as information on what is being implemented in schools. Fraser should begin to think seriously about helping an ailing Physical Education Programme with his suggestions, so that the National Schools’ Championships is strengthened through such efforts nationwide.
Edison Jefford

---

---