After days of carefully scrutinizing the results of the National Schools Track and Field, Cycling, Swimming and Teachers Championships, it was concluded that District 10, Upper Demerara/Kwakwani are still the overall champions of the event.
Following the championships which ended last Friday at the Albion Community Centre in Corentyne, Berbice, Upper Demerara finished with a total of 67 points as compared to North Georgetown’s 63 which placed them second while third place went to District 7 (Bartica) with 56 points.
But North Georgetown Zone contended that the official overall scores should have read North Georgetown 66 points and 65 points for Upper Demerara.
The district through their secretary Marlon Laing had said that they have evidence that North Georgetown did in fact win the championship because the computerized results showed them with 66 points and Linden with 65.
They said that they had finished second in the Teachers Championships and their calculation corresponded with that of the computerized version and therefore they launched an official protest.
Contacted last evening, Nicolas Fraser, a member of the games committee, told Stabroek Sport that they have been through the results several times since the district had launched their protest and they concluded that the results still favour Upper Demerara.
“Actually we finished counting since yesterday (Tuesday) and the results are still the same,” Fraser said, adding that “there were about 14 mistakes out of couple thousand entries which is only human but still it didn’t affect the overall results. Basically a few points were altered here and there give and take but still District 10 is the champion.”
Fraser said that to be certain that they were on target with the results, they went through the overall results several times and still they came up with Upper Demerara as the champs.
“We basically did it over and over and each time we came up with the same thing so as it is just like it was announced before, District 10 are the champs, so that’s it,” Fraser declared.
When contacted earlier, Upper Demerara’s manager Mayfield Taylor-Trim was positive that the results would remain the same since she had noted that they too were tabulating the results as it came in. She said also that entries were done professionally so the cries about cheating which are heard every year should not be made.
The bickering between the two districts has been occurring since the inception of the championships back in 1959 as the two districts are said to have some of the best athletes in the country.
