GOA Vice President points to AAG for Track & Field nonparticipation at South American Games

Sep 17, 2022 Sports

– Munroe sounds off on ‘delinquent Associations’

By Rawle Toney

Vice President of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA), Godfrey Munroe, says he’s unaware of any voting process to take place at the Executive Committee level, to determine if Guyana will have a representative in Track and Field at the upcoming South American Games in Paraguay.

Aubrey Hutson – AAG president

Kaieteur News had published recently that Guyana will not be represented in the discipline of Track and Field at the October 1 – 15 Games in the Capital City of Asunción.

However, another daily publication subsequently reported that the Executive Committee of the GOA, will meet to deliberate and vote on the track and field team’s inclusion; something Munroe told Kaieteur News must be “a fiction of one’s imagination.”

Guyana will be represented by 13 athletes in the area of table tennis, badminton, squash and boxing at the games which started in 1978.

President of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), Aubrey Hutson, admitted that he was aware, since April, of his association’s notice from the GOA to present a ‘long list’ of athletes for the South American Games.

Godfrey Munroe – GOA Vice President

Hutson also admitted to the AAG’s failure to acknowledge the GOA’s request for the submission of athletes, but had told Kaieteur News that he would’ve reached out the South American Congress in Brazil for a late-submission case for Guyana.

One publication reported that Hutson’s plea received a favourable response at the Congress, but the AAG’s 13-member submission will have to find favour with the GOA.

“Are we spending the money, and wasting it? Is the team being properly prepared?” Munroe told this newspaper, after highlighting that a number of athletes who were subsequently named by the AAG, were either unaware of their selection, or not prepared.

Munroe said “the delinquency of these associations should not fall on the GOA,” while sternly pointing out, “no member of the GOA Executive Committee is anti-sport.”

Munroe was concerned at what he calls the GOA “wasting money” in sending an underprepared team to the South American Games.

“Mr. Hutson is so disrespectful to the point where five instances did not respond to the request. We have to protect what goes out there,” Munroe said.

The GOA is the only entity that can register athletes for the South American Games which is organized by the Organización Deportiva Suramericana (ODESUR) of which Guyana (GOA) is one of 15 National Olympic Committees that are members.

“We cannot be using frivolous means to engage with ODESUR. What are we telling them two weeks before the games? The athletes are not even aware that they’re participating in any games. So now, they’re playing a game that if they don’t go to say that the executive committee of the GOA, are at fault,” Munroe said.

In a scorching email to the members of the GOA, obtained by Kaieteur News, Munroe pointed out that the GOA had taken their customary approach in identifying the disciplines for the South American games.

“The disciplines were written to in keeping with the deadlines set by the organizing committee (of the South American Games). We provided five instances of notification to selected sports disciplines and not even an acknowledgement to say noted we are in need of time because of some challenges was provided,” and obviously irritated Munroe said.

He added, “on another level are we just throwing money to say participation? Are we maximizing the chances of success? Are we spending the Olympic solidarity funds with a plan of improvement in mind? Are we asking for better performances? Are we giving our athletes maximum opportunity despite the challenges to extract optimum preparation, extract the best performances or are we starting a culture of participation?”

The AAG did not submit a long-list of athletes for the Commonwealth Games, forcing the GOA to act in the interest of the athletes for the second largest multisport event after the Olympics, as Munroe also added, “this was also applicable for the South American Youth games, the Pan Am American and the list can go-on-and-on with issues of non-compliance and queries to the Executive Committee intervention in selection positions.”

Munroe referred to the AAG’s lackluster approach as “poor governance, it is dysfunctional, unethical, disrespectful, contentious, an unprincipled recipe for disrepute, a recipe for poor relational dynamics and recipe for poor performance. I am hopeful sometime in the future we can address the same in view of improving our performance all-round.”

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.