By Rawle Toney
Unarguably one of best sprinters that this country has ever beheld, Elton Michael Jefford was laid to rest yesterday as scores of persons turned out to pay their last respects to the former track star.
His funeral service took place at the Redeemer Lutheran Church on Sheriff Street, Georgetown.
Born April 8, 1960, Jefford ran his last race with life on Wednesday October 29 in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Georgetown Public Hospital after suffering from medical complications.
Jefford was born at St. Lust in the Berbice River and first attended the Mount Hermon Lutheran School.
He later moved on to the New Amsterdam Presbyterian School and then Kwakwani Secondary School.
His passions for sports, moreso athletics, started during his school year’s in Berbice in the usual schools inter house sports.
It was his years working with GUYMINE, the then Bauxite Company in Linden that Jefford began to bud into a full fledged sprinter.
But probably one of his greatest moments in the sports would be bringing second to US sprint star Carl Lewis while beating Trinidadian Olympic Gold medalist Hasley Crawford who finished third in the race.
After then he was chosen to represent Guyana at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and was almost certain to win a medal but for the boycott of the games by Guyana.
Jefford was obviously disappointed and had his chances of making up lost ground at the next Olympic Games which was held in Moscow but disenchanted by serious injuries he later bowed out from competing in the sport in 1984.
Presiding at the funeral service was Rev. Stephen Nahar who urged the family to stay strong and steadfast and to get closer to God.
Jefford leaves to mourn seven children, Emmerson, Edison, Elton jnr., Erica, Kiswana, Elvern and Ezra and his wife Paula.
