57th National School C/ships launched

Nov 27, 2017 Sports

Margaret Augusto and Rickie Williams capture first Gold Medals

Margaret Augusto of District 9 that won the female 10k road race.

The 57th year of the Guyana’s schools cycling, swimming and track & field championships which is jointly organized by the Ministry of Education and the Guyana Teachers’ Union was official launched yesterday inclusive of the ceremonial march past of the 15 participating districts at the Leonora Track and Field facility on the West Coast of Demerara. The venue is hosting the games for the first time and defending champions District 11 (Upper Demerara/Kwakwani) are tipped to hold onto their crown after retaining most of their champion athletes, with South American champion Compton Caesar being one of the few omissions.
Present at the opening ceremony were representatives from the government and the Guyana Teachers’ Union, in addition to the officials and athletes that both participated in the march past event.
Dr. George Norton, Minister of Social Cohesion, with responsibility for Culture, Youth and Sport, during his address noted that, “School sports are a big deal and we all must recognize the significance that early competitions play in the lives of potentially great athletes. I encourage everyone, the coaches, parents and teachers to do whatever you can to help us foster our athletes’ talents.”
Meanwhile, Minister of Education, Nicolette Henry, explained that as we come together to witness this championship let, “Sportsmanship be paramount”, while reiterating the commitment of her ministry for Physical Education (P.E.) in all schools, “P.E. helps make it possible to produce disciplined, committed and focused students and athletes, who will become our next generation of leaders and nation builders.”
As the stakeholders were making their feature addresses, Rickie Williams of Chase’s Academic Foundation won the first Gold medal of the competition from District 11 (North Georgetown Zone) after finishing well ahead of the pack in the 10km road race event. Williams noted after the race that his approach was to pace himself during the first half of the 10k then run it the last half hard which worked to his success.
District 9’s Margaret Augusto won the female division of the 10k. The 16-year-old lass of the deep South Rupununi’s Achuwib Secondary School related that this is the first time she has been participating in the national event and she didn’t expect the race to be so hard but she held her own and ran through.
The track and field events will continue on a daily basis for the remainder of the week at the Leonora venue with action running off from 09:00hrs. (Calvin Chapman)