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Guyana renews bid to host 2026 CARIFTA Games
By Rawle Toney
Kaieteur Sports- James Cole, General Secretary of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), is set to formally submit a bid for Guyana to host the 2026 CARIFTA Games during the upcoming North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) Congress.
AAG General Secretary, James Cole
The Congress will take place concurrently with the 2025 CARIFTA Games, scheduled for April 19–21 at the Haseley Crawford Stadium in Trinidad and Tobago.
Cole will be accompanied by AAG President Sheryl Hermonstine as both representatives attend the Congress in the Twin Island Republic. The duo will advocate for Guyana’s readiness and renewed commitment to hosting the region’s premier junior track and field championship.
This is not Guyana’s first attempt to bring the CARIFTA Games to its shores.
In 2019, NACAC announced that Guyana would host the 50th edition of the Games, originally slated for 2022.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was rescheduled to 2023. However, the hosting rights were later relinquished after NACAC reopened the bidding process.
In January 2020, NACAC officials visited the National Track and Field Facility at Leonora, West Coast Demerara, where they emphasized the need for significant rehabilitation work, particularly on the track surface, to meet international standards.
Although the resurfacing of the synthetic track was successfully completed in October 2023, discussions ultimately broke down, and Guyana missed out on hosting rights once again.
This time, however, the AAG is moving forward with the full backing of the Government of Guyana, through the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport.
Tianna Springer and Javon Roberts carries the Golden Arrowhead at the opening of the 2024 CARIFTA Games. (Newsroom photo)
This support includes formal assurances that Guyana is now in a better position, both infrastructural and logistically, to host a successful CARIFTA Games for the first time since the competition began in 1972.
At the 50th CARIFTA Games held in Grenada, NACAC President Michael Sands announced that bids had been opened the same year in The Bahamas for the hosting of the subsequent three editions.
Hosting rights were awarded to Grenada (2024), Trinidad and Tobago (2025), and Barbados (2026). However, Barbados later withdrew its bid due to issues with facility readiness, prompting NACAC to reopen the bidding process for the 2026 edition.
Guyana quickly expressed its renewed interest in taking up the mantle.
According to Sands, to be seriously considered, the AAG must provide a formal letter of support from the Government of Guyana or a recognized guarantor of sponsorship. Once submitted, the bid will undergo full review and ratification by the NACAC Council.
If successful, the 2026 CARIFTA Games would mark a historic milestone for Guyana, becoming the first time the country hosts the prestigious regional championship that has launched the careers of world-class athletes such as Usain Bolt and Kirani James.
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