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Questions asked about the authenticity of Guyana Judo Association

Apr 16, 2018 Sports

– President Raoul Archer responds

William Blackman, an international coach and former Guyana Judo Association (GJA) secretary has come forward once again to raise awareness of the alleged unconstitutional operation of the GJA, in wake of the controversy surrounding the entity.
Only last month the association was sprung into the limelight when Canadian-based Judoka Darren Elcock made allegations that GJA was not operating in accordance to its statutes.
Amongst the list of several malpractices, Blackman, who was trained in Ecuador since 2005, maintained that the association is an unconstitutional body which is not even recognized by the international body; the International Judo Federation (IJF).
“The present association is illegal, because they had changed their name to the Judo Association of Guyana, which was overturned by the international body and that body told Raoul Archer, the current President of the GJA when he went to a world conference in Brazil in 2012 that they do not recognize the Judo Association of Guyana,” Blackman stated.
Blackman further said that he, “told him (Archer) when he came back in order to rectify this, you (Archer) have to do the same process how you changed the name, call a general meeting and change it back. He did not do this,” Blackman further explained.
The former Judoka further disclosed that members of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) are aware of this misconduct but still supports the entity.
In response to the allegations, a visibly frustrated Raoul Archer who was elected to office in 2013, explained to Kaieteur Sport that prior to being elected to head the GJA, he had no involvement at the administration level of the entity and he had no involvement with the name change.
In addition, he was unaware that there was even an initial AGM to change the name of the local Judo governing body, which was done in 2010.
Archer noted that he even received a certificate from the IJF and it wasn’t until his return to Guyana that it was brought to his attention that the name had been changed to the Judo Association of Guyana (JAG) rather than the GJA. Archer further defended, stating that it was quite baffling to him because the GJA is the registered name with all major parent entities including the GOA, National Sports Commission (NSC), Friends Society and more importantly the IJF.
Two additional questions that Blackman asked of the administration of the GJA were: 1. Under which constitution (the GJA or the JAG) was Raoul Archer elected to office.
2. When was he reelected to office and where are the records of such since it is his understanding that elections are due every two years.
Archer explained to Kaieteur Sport that he will have to consult with his lawyer before certain records are released.
Meanwhile, Blackman explained to Kaieteur Sport that at the turn of the decade, the GJA had received US$25,000 to fund local judo development but over 75% of the funds were used and no project or imitative was launched to help the development of the sport locally which suggested misuse of funds. However, in an article published in January 2014 in Kaieteur Sport, Blackman noted that the funds were not used for development but for travelling purposes.

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