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Athletics association bankrupt after hosting South American Junior Championships
By Edison Jefford
If you are an avid sport enthusiast, you will know of the deplorable state of facilities and then the
Winston George
inevitable bankruptcy in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil after that city hosted the 2016 Olympic Games. It seems to be the recurring theme of countries, which seek to host major sport events outside of the developed, capitalist and industrial world.
The Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) has been exposed to this type of insolvency after it hosted the South American Junior Championships here, June 3-4, at the National Track and Field Centre at Leonora, West Coast Demerara.
The association faces a mountain of bills with the service providers and even some officials, who worked at the international meet, still to be paid. But most regrettably, the burden of AAG debt is resting on the shoulders of Guyana’s senior national athletes.
Most of those athletes will have to miss the South American Senior Championships this weekend in Paraguay because the association claims to be too broke to send them. Because of that poor financial standing, athletes who could have afforded to pay their own way will represent Guyana at the meet.
Those athletes included United States-based, Winston George (200m, 400m), Jenea McCammon (100m, 400m hurdles) and Owen Adonis (100m, 200m). The AAG had indicated before that it is sending six athletes to the Championship, but was forced to renege on that decision, allowing the athletes who are willing to stand their expenses to compete.
The situation has prompted stern rejections of the association from the senior athletes, who were
Jenea McCammon
aiming to use the competition as a means of qualification for the World Championship in August in London, England. The athletes vented their frustrations on social media.
Context is important at this point. Guyana was not originally scheduled to host the junior South American competition. Guyana lobbied to host after Bolivia, the original hosts, went back on its commitment to put on the competition. It was a brave move from the athletics association, which is now proving to be an ill-advised decision.
From the beginning, the association’s decision to host such a major competition with just months to prepare had to be weighed with a feasibility study since there would have always been positive and negative consequences from taking up such an offer with short notice.
The positive results are in no doubt Guyana’s performance at the meet, where the country got the most medals at that level in the history of the competition. In addition, Guyana will receive much needed international attention from hosting the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)-sanctioned event.
But on the flip side of the coin, against an economic crunch, no major financial support from the Government, no major sponsorship, and an absence of a plan to generate revenue, the association basically trekked its own path to bankruptcy. There was no consultation with these magnanimous stakeholders before the association accepted to host the event.
An understanding of the local environment through a feasibility study prior to its proposal to host such an occasion would have given the association the right perspective. It would have informed them of the kind of support it would receive with a successful proposal.
But the illusion of an influx of revenue, simply on the basis of hosting an international event may have created some amount of myopia for the association, so much so that AAG President Aubrey Hutson went blindfolded into negotiations with CONSUDATLE –The South American Athletics Confederation.
The revenue did not come as expected because it had to be generated, which required much more work than was done. Now the association is saddled with more debt than it has money to pay and unfortunately, this state of affairs has trickled down to the ones who are always adversely affected – the athletes.
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