… on Inter- GUiana Games opening day
Guyana got off to a prolific start in track and field when the 42nd Inter-Guiana Games (IGG) kicked off yesterday at the Police Sports Club ground, Eve Leary as they left their rivals from French Guiana and Suriname trailing in their wake.
Led by their three CARIFTA Games medallists, Jevina Straker, Jonella Jonas and Ricardo Martin, the Land of Many Waters accumulated 99 points after the completion of ten of the twelve events which were carded for the day, earning 17 medals (nine gold, four silver and four bronze) in the process.
Straker who claimed Guyana’s lone gold medal at the CARIFTA Games in the 1500 metres, repeated her performance in the event, running 5:07.30s. She was able to hold off a stiff run from Jonas who finished second (5:07.90s) while Suriname’s Genelva Diko finished third with a time of 5:21.40s.
Jonas and Straker who clocked times of 4:42.89s and 4:45.05s at the CARIFTA Games commanded the race from the start and coming down to the final 100m Jonas made her move on Straker who had the inside but it was to no avail as Straker opened her stride to put some distance between herself and her teammate before crossing the finish line.
World Youth Championship-bound Martin showed his dominance at the games when he and his teammate Kevin Bailey stamped their authority in the male 1500m and stopped the clock in times of 4:24.30s and 4:29.20s respectively ahead of Regill Touwslager (Suriname) who finished third with a time of 4:31.20s.
The Guyanese spectators were brought to their feet when the IGG defending male and female 100m and 200m champions, Treiston Joseph and Roxanna Rigby, who are also considered IGG’s fastest man and woman retained those accolades with both winning their 100m races yesterday in times of 10.7s and 12.0s.
Joseph was challenged closely by teammate Okene Stuart who clocked 11.0s for the second spot while Suriname’s Astayo Leeflang grabbed third in a time of 11.4s and Danielle Clark (Suriname) and Deja Smart (Guyana) trailed Rigby for second and third with times of 12.4s and 12.9s in that order.
After the race, Joseph stated he was not happy with his preparation leading up to the games but nevertheless he put his best foot forward. “My preparation was not what I actually wanted to do because of the bad weather but I did manage to go through the paces and came out and did my best.”
“Me and my coach did get to put in some work but it was not much. I didn’t get much practice for the 200 metres but tomorrow (today) I just have to stay focused on my race and hopefully it will be enough to come out on top,” he added.
Host Guyana got their motivation after winning the first two events for the day, which were the 400 metres male and female races.
Dellon DeAbreau ran a time of 52.90s to claim the male event ahead of Junior Thallon (54.10s) of French Guiana and his teammate Frank Mercurius (54.30s).
In the female category, Shaunna Thornhill (1:01.00s) raced ahead of Suriname’s Roma Van de Vloot (1:01.09s) for the gold while her partner Letitia Myles (1:02.20s) was third.
Clean rivalry
Meanwhile, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony in delivering his charge to the athletes thanked them for continuing the rich history of sportsmanship and clean rivalry at the IGG games and hoped that the event can grow from strength to strength over the years.
He also said that from this year onwards, the three sports ministers will play a more active role in the games which will see the event becoming a bigger affair.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds who officially declared the games open, stressed on the cultural barriers that the IGG event breaks, bringing three countries that speak three different languages together.
What was most important, the Prime Minister stated, was the initiative to ensure that the games have equal participation from both males and females.
He said that sport within the Caribbean has been dominated by males only in recent years and for the IGG event to see the females coming onboard shows the growth in the games.
It’s traditional that before the action begins at the games, the national anthem of the three countries must be played and the hoisting of the respective country’s flag as well.
However, while the French anthem was played and the flag was gracefully hoisted, the trouble began when it came to the Surinamese as the French anthem was played instead causing some unease as the Dutch began to speak up loudly in their native language before resorting to singing their anthem.
And when it came to the host country, the coordinator could not find the anthem and the Guyanese athletes too became unsettled, but President of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) Colin Boyce used his initiative and raced over to the area where the Police Force band was and had them play the national anthem.
In the meantime, Chairman of the National Sports Commission Conrad Plummer who was also the master of ceremonies downplayed the snafu by ‘cracking a joke’ as Guyanese say in the vernacular. It was well received by the athletes and their delegations and they got right down to the business of the games.