Guyana South American Games Track and Field team conundrum?

Sep 07, 2022 Sports

– AAG insist on contingent; no record at GOA of athletes registered

By Rawle Toney

Kaieteur News – There seems to be conflicting reports surrounding Guyana’s track and field representatives at this year’s South American Games in Paraguay, with the Athletics Association of Guyana insisting that they’ve registered 10 athletes, while the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) has no record of those representatives.

The South American Games is set for the city of Asunción, from October 1 – 15.

Kaieteur News on Tuesday, September 6, published the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) team, and was hoping to have the names of the athletes in the discipline of track and field.

AAG president, Aubrey Hutson

Sources close to the GOA informed Kaieteur News that Guyana will be represented in Table Tennis, Squash, Badminton and Boxing.

The source explained that Track and Field, Swimming and Basketball (3X3) did not respond to a request for submission of a long-list for their athletes.

When contacted, a GOA official told this publication that they’re not at liberty to speak on the issue, and asked that Kaieteur News await their official announcement.

However, the conundrum in this is the AAG president insisting that Guyana will have a team at the South American Games.

Via phone call yesterday, AAG president Aubrey Hutson, when asked who the athletes are, said he doesn’t have that information at hand.

Hutson admitted that the deadline for submission has passed, but added, “I will be heading to the U18 championships and I will make a case for the late submission.”

Nonetheless, the GOA source insisted that it is impossible, at this stage, for Guyana to register a track and field team.

The source said the GOA already submitted names of athletes and officials to the South American Games organizers for all documentation needed, and would’ve already made travel arrangements.

The GOA, they stated, is the only entity that can register athletes, noting that the games are organized by the Organización Deportiva Suramericana (ODESUR) of which Guyana (GOA) is one of 15 National Olympic Committees that are members.

Kaieteur News contacted other members and officials of the AAG, all of whom pointed the newspaper’s questions about the team’s composition to the AGG president.

This is not the first time that Hutson and the AAG are in the spotlight for non-submission of athletes.

Hutson came in for some flogging from supporters of track and field when the AAG failed to register a single athlete for this year’s South American Youth Games, even though track and field was the only discipline to win medals at the games in 2017 in Santiago, Chile.

Hutson is currently serving a third term (four years) in office after returning to the helm of track and field at this year’s AAG elections.

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