By Rawle Toney
The second leg of this year’s Inter-Guiana Games (IGG) which was to be held in Kourou, French Guiana from November 28-30 has been postponed owing to unrest in that country.
According to information reaching this newspaper from the French colony, all the access roads leading to where the games would have been held have been blocked by residents using a number of vehicles in protest to high fuel prices in the country.
According to French Guiana native Jerome Vallette, the people are striking because the price of oil is too high and they want a decrease of 5O cents Euro.
Vallette said that since November 1, the price of regular oil had been raised to 1.77 Euros per litre and gasoil (diesel) to 1.55 Euros per litre.
He explained that because of this, it was impossible to cross the country by bus or enter Kourou or the capital Cayenne.
Stabroek Sport also solicited a comment from Julien Cozema who is the Academic Inspector of Physical and Sport Education in French Guiana and a member of the IGG steering committee and he confirmed that because of the unrest there was no way that they could stage the games as initially planned.
“We decided to cancel this date (November 28-30) because it’s actually impossible to cross the country for our friends from Guyana and Suriname. Kourou is under a blocus (protest) and there is no way to find oil, so it was the best solution to avoid them coming for nothing.
“The Games are not cancelled, just postponed and next week we are going to organise a meeting of the management committee of the games to decide the new date. Actually we’re working on a solution to make the games in January.
“It’s too short according to our calendar to put the games in December because the Christmas holidays are arriving very soon,” said Cozema who was speaking through an interpreter.
Initially, the games were first slated for October but due to a request by French Guiana, it was rescheduled for November 28-30. Both male and female competitors in the three disciplines, cycling, volleyball and basketball, were preparing to depart Guyana this morning and would have spent a night in Suriname before making their way to French Guiana tomorrow.
Guyana are the defending champions in the male basketball and volleyball while cycling was added for the first time as an official competition after a successful testing when the second leg of the games was hosted here last year.
Also added to the competition this time around is female cycling which will see cyclists coming from several European countries.
After the first leg which was held in Suriname this year where the three countries competed in swimming, football and athletics, Guyana stands second overall while Suriname is first followed by French Guiana in third position.
