GIT Islamic GamesE’bo Coast are Open Softball champs; ECD, Georgetown, EBD triumph

Apr 10, 2019 Sports

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By Zaheer Mohamed
The inaugural Islamic Games organised by the Guyana Islamic Trust (GIT) Youth Department that was held at the Everest Cricket Club last weekend was deemed a success as teams from the respective districts battled for supremacy in the various disciplines.
The games included male softball cricket, volleyball, football, table tennis and athletics which were contested at the U16 and Open categories. Essequibo Coast crowned a good weekend as they won the Open Softball, U16 football and Open table tennis titles, while East Bank Demerara won the U16 table tennis, Georgetown took the Open football and East Coast Demerara captured the U16 softball cricket and volleyball top prizes.
Essequibo Coast defeated West Coast Demerara by 41 runs in the Open softball final played on Sunday. Batting first,

Essequibo Coast managed 96-4 off their reduced quota of 10 overs. Shaz Grosvenor made 32, while Frank Sookrah contributed 23 as Imran Ayube and Azaaz Ally picked up one wicket each. West Coast Demerara were limited to 55-5 in reply. Leyland McDonald had 2-12 and Adish Salim 1-2.
Essequibo Coast beat East Bank Demerara by 39 runs in their semi final encounter. Essequibo Coast took first strike and scored 145-3 in 10 overs. Grosvenor struck 93, while Ameer Yusuf made 20. East Bank Demerara responded with 106-7, Amir Khan made 28 as Sookrah took 2-30 and Mc Donald 1-16.
In the second semi final, West Coast Demerara overcame East Coast Demerara by six wickets. East Coast batted first and made 87-5, while West Coast replied with 88-4 in nine overs. Dawood Arif made 32.
Essequibo Coast chalked up 90 points to win the open table tennis title ahead of Georgetown with 80 points; West

Bank and East Bank Demerara were tied in third position on 55 points each.
East Bank beat Georgetown to win the U16 table tennis final. East Bank beat West Bank and Georgetown got the better of West Coast in the respective semi finals.
Essequibo Coast defeated Linden 3-1 on penalties after both teams failed to find the back of the net at the end of regulation time in the U16 5-a-side football final on Saturday.
Georgetown beat West Coast 1-0 to take the open 5-a-side football title courtesy of an 8th minute strike from Kevin Griffith. Georgetown, who didn’t concede in the competition, thumped Essequibo Coast 4-0 in their semi final matchup. Khaled-Al-Mansoor opened the scoring in the 14th minute and stretched the lead one minute later, while Griffith slotted home in the 16th and 17th minutes.
West Coast won 1-0 against East Bank in their semi final game with Haroon Sacasa scoring in the 5th minute.
Led by a fine all-round performance from Amir Mohamed, East Coast beat Georgetown to win the U16 softball final. Mohamed top scored with 35 as East Coast managed 104 in five overs, batting first. He then returned with the ball to

capture five wickets including a hat-trick to restrict Georgetown for three.
East Coast beat Essequibo Coast and Georgetown overcame West Bank in the semi finals.
East Coast grabbed the Open volleyball title, beating Georgetown 25-13, 25-09 in the final. East Coast defeated Essequibo Coast 15-12, 15-13, while Georgetown won against East Bank 15-9, 15-11 in the semi finals.
The 100m U16 race was taken by Kosi Thomas of East Bank Demerara ahead of Hiram Gilkes of Linden and Joel Melville of Essequibo Coast in that order.
Richard Barrington of Georgetown captured the open 100m while Ishmael Bin Abdullah of Linden placed second and Dante Wilson of West Coast Demerara finished third. Melville of Essequibo Coast won the bag race, three-leg and wheel borrow race with Akram Mohamed. He also placed third in the U16 200m.
Speaking with Kaieteur Sport prior to the presentation ceremony, Shaikh Abdool Aleem Rahim said the games were organised to create a sporting environment in which youths from throughout Guyana can enjoy an atmosphere of brotherhood and enhance their skills through some healthy competitions. “Through these games, we can strengthen relationships; we are brothers and suppose to be helping each other in every way so this to foster brotherhood as well. It was also a fun day for the family”, he added.
The Motto of the youth department is “Nurturing tomorrow’s leaders today” and Shaikh Rahim pointed out that they want the youths to be able to take on greater responsibilities in the future. “We want our youths to start from organising sporting activities and move on to taking on greater responsibilities and achieved greater things, thereby taking on initiative for the community and the country as a whole.”
“Despite such a short time the organisers managed to run off the activities successfully and In Sha Allah (God Willing) we can get more participation next year,” he said.
The GIT has 12 administrative districts around the country.

 

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