Dear Editor,
As a fan of race walking and a former prize-winning competitor, I’ve been paying attention to the exemplary efforts of the Cavaliers Sports and Tour Club (CSTC) to make this Olympic event popular here.
And while national race walk champion, Rudolph Mitchell is within strike of his 100th consecutive victory, other ardent competitors such as national junior athlete Jonathan Fagundes, the veteran Maurice Fagundes, Snr., Debidyal Harold, Franklyn Archer, Jeremy Cornelius and O’Neil Joseph have been making headlines from time to time, besides a growing number of junior and female competitors.
And the organizers have been bringing some prominent sponsors on board too, who have been donating trophies and giving other material support, including the Bank of Guyana, the Rotary Club of Georgetown (RCG) in association with the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), the University of Guyana, the Ministry of Education, Ricks and Sari Ltd., the New Building Society, and the political parties. All of this should augur well.
Unfortunately, however, there have been times when competitors have been left stranded at the starting line because the chief organizer and starter has failed to show up.
This happened again on Sunday, Father’s Day, when around 8:00am I came across at least four hopefuls still waiting at the National Park for the start of a race which was publicized in the Stabroek News of June 13 for a 6:30am start.
The headline was: ‘Fagundes duo dominate NBS race walk event’ and the announcement of the Father’s Day race was “. . . CSTC will be staging a Father’s Day six-laps race walk in the National Park on June 21 commencing at 6:30am.”
I had witnessed this ‘no show’ fiasco thrice before. And this is no small matter when some competitors travel from the Linden-Soesdyke Highway and the East Coast to the city to make their contribution in developing the sport by their involvement and commitment.
After all, the athletes are the bedrock of any event, so they deserve to be treated with respect and due consideration, and not taken for granted.
Yours faithfully,
Lloyd Conway
