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NACAC officials visit Guyana ahead of 2021’s 50th CARIFTA Games
By Calvin Chapman
Recently elected President ofthe North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC), Mike Sands, arrived in Guyana for the first time on Tuesday and yesterday he made an official visit to the National Track & Field Center (NTFC) on the West Coast of Demerara, which will be the venue of the 50th Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) Games over the Easter weekend in 2021.
The NACAC and AAG officials during the walk around of the NTFC yesterday.
Sands’ along with his General Secretary (G.S.) Keith Joseph’s main purpose of visiting the ‘land of many waters’ was to gauge Guyana’s progress and capability of hosting a Track & Field meet of this magnitude that will see projected amounts of almost 800 athletes & technical delegates along with almost 2000 travelling fans.
A total of 26 countries are scheduled to participate in the games which was first contested in Barbados and the NACAC executives expressed optimism with Guyana being able to successfully host the event although there is some work to do.
According to the manager of the NTFC, Trevor Williams, the facility currently has a capacity of approximated 3000 but with the proposed installation of two more stands, the capability will increase to 5000.
Furthermore, the relaying of the track and the construction of a warmup area along with some infrastructural fine tuning should bring the venue up to standard with over 14 months remaining to complete such.
Front row (L-R) NACAC’s head Mike Sands, Aubrey Hutson and Trevor Williams. Back row (L-R) Paul Arthur, Keith Joseph, Mayfield Taylor-Trim, Lavern Fraser-Thomas.
Joseph and Sands agreed that although there is some work to be done at the venue, it has a lot of space and the potential of the facility is immense, not only for the 2021 CARIFTA Games but for future meets.
The NACAC officials highlighted during the visit that technical help will be provided if the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) desires such and as much as 20 local officials are scheduled to benefit from general and specialised training in the coming months.
“We will use the South American under-23 championships that will be hosted here (Guyana) in September, to measure the weakness and strengths of our local organizing committee and recalibrate if we need to ensure that the momentous 50th and first CARIFTA games hosted in Guyana will be successfully hosted,” Hutson, head of the AAG, shared with Kaieteur Sport.
Although the AAG have already been awarded the hosting rights, Hutson and his team will make a final presentation of what they have in store for the 2021 games during congress which will be held in Bermuda shortly after the 49th games that will be held in that country this Easter weekend.
The NACAC duo along with the AAG are schedule to host a press conference today at the Minister of Social Cohesion with responsibility for Sport; Dr. George Norton’s office today.
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