Female football team has ‘surprise’ in store
From April 24-27, Guyana will play host for the first leg of the 2009 Inter-Guiana Games (IGG) which will see them competing against Suriname and French Guiana in swimming, athletics and football with male and female participation in each discipline.
According to Director of Sport, Neil Kumar whose office, the National Sports Commission (NSC), is tasked with organizing the games, all systems are in place for the staging of the event.
Three venues will be used during the four-day event with the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) ground hosting football, while athletics will be staged at the Police Sports Club ground at Eve Leary and swimming at Castellani Pool at Homestretch Avenue.
The Director of Sport stated that all the locations are well prepared since they have done some work to bring them up to scratch.
“I had a meeting this morning with the games committee and all the logistics and preparations are in place and for those that are not, we are putting the final touches on them,” Kumar stated.
Touching on Guyana’s chances of reclaiming the overall IGG title from their rivals Suriname, Kumar said that he feels the locals stand a very good chance since they will have home advantage.
Recently, the sports directors in the three Guianas met and made several changes to the format of the games so that every championship will be split into male and female divisions and separate points will be awarded.
This, Kumar said, would work well in favour of the host country since they will be defending their athletics championship but the sore point comes in female football.
He noted that Guyana will have a team and while he was reluctant to comment on their readiness he disclosed that they have a secret and the cat will be let out of the bag on Friday ahead of their first game.
“I don’t want to say much about the female football team. We have a surprise for them (French Guiana and Suriname), but I think we have a very good male football team, most of the guys are very good and we will reverse that decision from last year,” said the veteran sports director.
The Surinamese and French contingents are expected to arrive in Guyana tomorrow morning and Kumar said that security for the delegations is at a high level.
“I must thank Commissioner of Police Henry Greene for his support. We will have security for the athletes and officials from the time they enter the country. They all will be staying at the Ocean View International Hotel and security will be high there as well.”
The NSC has promised a championship like never before, stating that an exciting opening ceremony is planned for Friday at the Eve Leary ground and immediately after the athletics competition will begin.
On the same day both the male and female football teams will be in action at the GDF ground.