– President Jagdeo intervenes
By Rawle Toney
Following a meeting between president of the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) Colwyn King and His Excellency President Bharat Jagdeo, the 48th annual national schools’ track and field, cycling and swimming championship will go ahead as planned.
The event which is scheduled to be held in Linden from November 17-21 at the Mackenzie Sports Club ground was in a limbo after the GTU, who is responsible for organizing the event, said that they going to pull the plug on the championship because of insufficient funding.
According to the GTU at a press conference held Thursday last, they had budgeted for $10,133,206 and only received $2.8 million from the Ministry of Education which was given in the form of stationery supplies for administrative purposes.
King yesterday said that thanks to President Jagdeo, who pledged the difference they can now breathe a sigh of relief.
Meanwhile it was reported that the Mackenzie Sports Club has been through several changes to its facility to accommodate the 1600 plus athletes who are scheduled to use the venue on a daily basis.
According to King, the athletes’ stand has been done over along with the toilet facilities at the venue.
King said that some amount of work was also done on the ground itself and that everything was in order for the start of the championships.
The athletes from District Eight and Nine are expected to arrive in Linden over the weekend.
