IAAF Technical Official gives appraisal on local facilities

Apr 09, 2017 Sports

International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Technical Official, Giovanni Cardona has indicated that he does not see any “big obstacle” that can prevent Guyana from hosting a successful South American

IAAF Technical Official, Giovanni Cardona (right) at Friday’s press briefing with National Sports Commission Chairman, Ivan Persaud (left) and AAG President, Aubrey Hutson.

Junior Championships in June.
Cardona reportedly made the observation at a press conference that the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) organised at Olympic House on Friday. Kaieteur Sport was not invited to the press conference and was neither informed of Cardona’s visit to Guyana.
This newspaper received the information via a colleague, who was reportedly at the forum. The Columbian, Cardona spent the week apparently streamlining Guyana’s preparations for the meet before giving his observations at the media briefing.
“We only need some support, and that will be it, you already have the track, you already have the human resource, we only need a little push up; we need to put on our best effort, put on our game face and game on. It needs to happen,” he said.
His visit included trips to the National Track and Field Centre at Leonora where the meet will be held and the Ramada Princess Hotel where the athletes are expected to be accommodated. Guyana was handed the South American Youth Championships after original hosts, Bolivia went back on its decision to host the biannual meet.
“It’s been a great experience, it’s been a great time, it’s a great facility, the track that you got. There’s great human resource to host this Championships and I think it’s a very nice opportunity to have a very nice Championships,” Cardona said.
However, despite his surface assessment, Guyana still seems to be some distance away from the magnitude of the meet. Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), Aubrey Hutson recognised this fact when he listed a needs list with just about eight weeks left.
“We needa little bit of carpeting in the call room; we must have the pole vault equipment in and the pole vault landing mats, we must have the cage for the hammer and discus put in place. We also need to import some more implements, like javelin, discus and shot put, but everything else is in place,” he said.
Hutson indicated that the AAG will have to cater for in excess of 80 officials. Cardona will come back next month to train new technical officials. He said that this is one advantage of hosting the Championships – Guyana will have new trained technical officials.
He informed that between 350 – 400 athletes are expected, but Guyana is still awaiting the final numbers from the respective participating countries. According to him, the AAG will reach out to athletes all across the country and in the diaspora to have maximum representation of athletes for Guyana. The hosts will be allowed three athletes per event, and the AAG wants to meet this quota.