By Rawle Toney
The Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) 48th annual national schools’ track, field, cycling and swimming championships will officially be declared open this evening at 6pm at the Mackenzie Sports Club ground (MSC) in Linden.
According to Mayfield Trim, who heads the championships track and field committee, the actual championships will get started this morning with the male and female cycling events over a distance of 40 and 25Km respectively.
Also on this morning will be the male and female 10Km and 5Km road races.
The swimming pool which was refurbished by the Bauxite Company BOASI, will be christened today when the swimming championships take place from 10am.
As it relates to the opening ceremony, Trim said that the torch relay will start from Bayroc which is located in Wismar and will proceed to the MSC ground.
The torch will be carried by several of the regions’ present and past, top athletes before being lit by Regional Chairman of Region 10, Mortimer Mingo, and one of last year’s champion athlete, Deion Duke.
Expected to attend the opening ceremony is His Excellency President Bharrat Jagdeo who is the Patron of the games.
Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports Dr. Frank Anthony, Minister of Education Sheik Baksh and other government officials are also expected to attend the championships.
After the opening ceremony there will be the teachers’ 4 x400m and 4x100m, male and female relays.
Trim said that should good weather prevail, the 5000m for male and 3000m for female cycling events will also be staged.
Trim added that the athletes from the outer regions, one, seven, eight and nine had already arrived in Linden with the others expected to arrive sometime yesterday.
The athletes’ village, which is located at the Mackenzie Primary School at Kara Kara, was up and running and, according to the organizers, security will be a priority since the last time the games were held in Linden in 2001, thieves broke into the North Georgetown camp and forced that district to prematurely end its participation at the games.
The Mackenzie Sports Club over the past few weeks has undergone a complete face lift for the event which will see some 1600 athlete traversing the venue each day.
The toilet facilities and the athletes’ stands, which were of major concern to the organizers, were redone and tents will be erected on the ground as well to house the athletes.
North Georgetown District 11 are the defending champions but the host district, who have won the championships an unprecedented 11 times, will be looking to salvage some pride at home and keep the trophy.
The national school athletics championship is one of the high points in school athletics since it brings the country’s best athletes in the school system to compete for trophies and medals and the right to be called national champions.
