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50th Carifta Games – AAG boss says Guyana capable of making event a success
By Calvin Chapman
Despite grumblings by some persons in the Track and Field fraternity that Guyana might be incapable of successfully hosting the 50th Caribbean Free Trade Association (Carifta) Games in 2021, President of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), Aubrey Hutson is positive that Guyana is more than competent.
AAG President
The assurance was made in an interview with Kaieteur Sport by Hutson who said that his team can manage and organise a successful event at the National Track & Field Center (NTFC). In fact, it won’t be the first international meet organised by the AAG at the NTFC, located at Leonora, West Coast Demerara.
In June 2017, the AAG hosted the South American Junior (Under-20) Championships, which was well attended and hiccup free.
“You cannot have an event like Carifta Games happening all around the Caribbean when Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham; one of the founders of the Caribbean and Carifta movement, has never had his country visited by the other members in hosting the event”, this, Hutson noted, was one of his stronger points in his letter to Victor Lopez, President of the North American, Central American and Caribbean Championships (NACAC), in the bid to host the games.
The AAG boss shared that he is saddened that persons are claiming that the financial burden to run off the event will be too much for the association, “For you to make such a statement, for me, is a slap in the face of the Government of Guyana and the Private Sector. They don’t understand the dynamics of how the finances are usually accrued for Carifta Games.” He further posited that some countries have received in excess of US$200,000 funding from NACAC.
The AAG estimates that the hosting of the 2021 Carifta Games will be a major tourism investment for Guyana with a projected total of at least 600 athletes and about double that amount in fans expected to arrive, which will provide a major boost to our tourism sector while bringing recognition to this country as a location that can host high profile games.
Hutson explained that, “Nations like Bahamas would come with one plane load of athletes and another with fans. Trinidad and Tobago is known to charter a plane while Jamaica does the same as well.”
In terms of infrastructure, “We may need to look back at Leonora and put some extra stands in there. We need extra stands. Once we do that we can then have a discussion with Mundo to come in and do the resurfacing of the track which has seen deterioration at certain parts and I am certain Mundo would do it (at a subsidized cost) because of branding opportunities at the 2021 games.”
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