Linden supporters filled the Mackenzie Sports Club ground for four days of competition in the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) organized National Schools’ Track and Field, Swimming and Cycling Championships with hopes of their team, District 10 – Upper Demerara/Kwakwani regaining the title which they held from 2004-2006.
Up to press time last evening, District 11 was out front in the track and field competition with District Six in second position.
The final results of the championships have not yet been declared with president of the GTU, Colwyn King, promising that by tomorrow the final results would be disclosed.
District 10 took command of the track and field competition from the first day and ate most of the cake on the final day with almost every final having an athlete among the first three finishers.
The championships, which were officially declared open Tuesday evening with the march past of the 16 participating districts, ended Friday night at about 10:45pm.
The late conclusion of the championships resulted from rainfall which greatly affected the staging of events on the second day where only between three to five hours of activity was possible.
The third day’s programme was also interrupted by short showers that halted the championship for an hour while a protest that resulted in athletes leaving the Mackenzie Sports Club ground also hampered the organizers from meeting their schedule.
The final day started an hour and a half late but the officials were able to re-arrange the events to give the athletes sufficient enough time to recover although a few athletes told this newspaper the time between events was not enough to fully recover.
Compared to last year when 51 new records were set, this year’s championships saw only 15 new records.
