Letter to the Sports EditorThis bad habit of the AAG must stop

Apr 24, 2019 Sports

Dear Editor,
For over eight years now I have been trying to educate athletes and coaches in Guyana about the role of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) when it comes to what role and what authority they have, but because of the lack of information the Athletes, Coaches, Teachers and Parents were not able to understand that the AAG were denying the young people of Guyana Opportunities.
On the other hand, the AAG also thinks that when it comes to Track and Field, everything has to be through them or it can’t go on. This also was a major challenge for the King Medas-Pansy Adonis Foundation (KMPA) for many years.
Just this year the KMPA Foundation and the New Balance Nationals Foundation in the USA invited a few athletes to participate in the 2019 New Balance Nationals held at the Armory the New Balance Hall of Fame from the 8th to 10th of March.
The KMPA Foundation was met with resistance from the AAG who told athletes that they were not given permission to travel overseas and they will be sanctioned if they go, this caused a lot of panic and fear to the athletes and parents who were of the belief that they were advised wrong by the KMPA Foundation.
The truth is that the AAG tried as they did to the athletes who were invited to the Penn Relays, but was unsuccessful to stop the trip because the information that the United States Embassy wanted was emailed directly from the Organization who invited the athletes and Teachers. Also what the AAG did not know is that the KMPA Foundation went about doing it the right way, getting a letter from the Ministry of Education and consent letters from the Parents and the Principal of the School was all involved in the decision making process for the team from Soesdyke Secondary School. The athletes were even told that they were not the best athletes to leave the country, something the organization was not happy about the comments made to the Athletes.
The KMPA Foundation has for years been advocating, informing Schools across Guyana telling them that the AAG has no power over them. In 2017 the AAG went on a campaign to derail the King Medas-Pansy Adonis Classic road race and track meet from coming off and the same thing happened last year, telling clubs and schools that the AAG didn’t sanction the track meet and no one should go.
The fact that the AAG is saying that they have the power though the IAAF is false and I can confirm that because in the USA many executive members of different organizations said different and we will be taking action to the IAAF and a copy will be circulated to the media. Also we will move to the court and the AAG will have to produce the documents that they’re saying that the IAAF rules give them the power. Not even in Jamaica the JAAA has authority over the school system nowhere in the world that is true. We were told which one of the IAAF rule books that Guyana is using. For too long the different sports bodies in Guyana have been keeping the youths down and it needs to stop.
And again I will say this loudly the AAG has no authority over schools in Guyana and even any athlete who wants to run overseas once they are running unattached. They only have say if the athletes are representing the country. They need to stop or go to court.
Andy Medas King.

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