By Marlon Munroe
Inter Guiana Games track and field defending champions Guyana, will be entering this year’s tournament without many of their marquee athletes but Head Coach and Manager/Chaperone are optimistic that the athletes selected are good enough to retain the title.
Head Coach Lyndon Wilson and manager/chaperone Pamela Phillips yesterday told Stabroek Sport after a team meeting that they are satisfied with the team that was selected by the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG).
They also believe the team has members that can orchestrate Guyana’s repeat of the title when the first stage of the championships ends March 28 in Cayenne, (French Guiana).
This year’s team will be without National Schools’ sprint champion Chavez Ageday, who won the 100m and 200m at the IGG trials last month, because of the South American under-23 championships scheduled for Colombia from March 14-30.
IGG trial winners Nadine Rodrigues (200m and 400m) and Jenella Jonas (1500m) will be ruing their omission for contention for the games because they are not affiliated to an academic institution while Guyana will be more hard pressed since there is no Jevina Straker who is preparing for her Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate.
Wilson, who will be making his sixth appearance as coach of the national team, indicated that the athletes seem confident at this time but he is still instilling in them that they are the best and therefore should go out and perform. He said that he is employing this strategy especially for the debutants in the team who can easily become discouraged and cower under the pressure of international competition.
He believes that with his guidance and that of assistant coach Robert Chisolm, Phillips and other seasoned athletes in the team there will be success. He said that he has already given pep talks to some of the first timers and he is pleased because they have shown a positive attitude thus far.
He told Stabroek Sport that the management team will be meeting to discuss ideas of having electing team captains which will aid in calming frayed nerves. Management will also be involving parents in the process.
On the other hand, Wilson noted that he will try his utmost not to change the training programmes of the athletes, who are from different clubs and working with their respective coaches. He said that he will be focusing on speed work since he has already got a chance to assess the physical conditioning of the athletes.
Wilson in his statement declared that he will be asking all athletes to produce a programe so that he will understand the level of work in the run up to the team’s departure on March 24.
Logistically, Phillips revealed that plans are progressing smoothly for the team but six of the athletes have not produced their passports. She hopes however, that by tomorrow the athletes will produce their documents along with the international yellow fever certificate.
She said that she does not want an issue of selecting alternatives at this time especially since she wants the team to be quickly grouped so that they can develop the camaraderie among themselves. And for this she will be stringently tackling the issue to have these documents in. Meanwhile, when this newspaper spoke to some of the athletes yesterday at the Eve Leary ground some expressed their confidence while others stated that they are already feeling the jitters of the competition. Tiffany Carto, 15, who ran the second fastest women’s time this year of 12.1s, said that she was trying not to think about the nervousness since her main focus is to continue to break down her times.
Seasoned youth middle and long distance athlete Carlisa Atkinson explained that she has not been training after she had transferred from the Roadrunners Club to the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) club. However, she said that she is confident that she can go back to the IGG and churn out a good performance.