After a hectic three days, the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall was a picture of peace and tranquility late Sunday evening as the curtain was pulled on a very eventful second and final stages of this year’s Inter Guiana games with Suriname retaining their title as overall champions. French Guiana placed second with Guyana third.
Guyana did not participate in the first stage of the inter-Guiana Games held in French Guiana earlier this year because of the International Cricket Council’s 2007 World Cup competition which was held at the National Stadium at Providence.
As a result, Suriname dominated in athletics and football while French Guiana won the swimming category.
The points recorded by each team were then added to the points achieved in this second stage to determine the overall winner and since Guyana had no points in the first stage, it was almost impossible for them to be in contention for the overall title.
Suriname followed their stage one wins, by recording the most consistent performance in the second stage of the Games.
They swept the women’s events with dominant victories in female basketball and volleyball while placing second to Guyana in male Basketball and volleyball.
Their only third place finish was in the cycling component where they were simply outclassed by the Guyana and French Guiana riders.
Just as in last year’s tournament, Suriname demonstrated a very high level of competition in the majority of the disciplines that they participated in, and this has forced the other two competing countries to strive to raise their levels in order to be on the same wavelength as the defending champions. A clear testimony of this was displayed in the male volleyball and basketball match-ups. The Guyana male volleyball and basketball teams that were not so successful in last year’s tournament, showed tremendous improvement and managed to upset Suriname sides that looked invincible a year earlier.
