By Tamika Garnett
The Singapore Youth Olympic Games (YOG) has paved the way for another of Guyana’s athlete to be given a bit of international exposure.
Athlete Jevina Sampson, through the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) has been selected by the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) to attend a Singapore Youth Olympic Scholarship (SYOS) Selection Programme, to be held at the Singapore Sports School from the 14 – 18 of June.
As a legacy of the inaugural Games, the Singapore YOG Organising Committee is offering a total of six scholarships to six budding athletes between the ages of 13 – 15 who specialize in one of the five summer sport categories.
With one of the scholarship intended for an athlete from the host country, in the encouragement of diversity, invitations were dispersed across the globe to the 205 National Olympic Committees to summit potential awardees to fill the remaining six positions, and the 11-year-old Sampson was among the lucky few whose credentials stood out.
Hoping to give a welcomed boost to the athletes of the less developing nations and to open doors for the athletes, the committee is looking to continue the venture as an integral part of the quadrennial event in the coming years, and will be dishing out the repeating six scholarships every time.
About 15 athletes from around the world have been shortlisted to attend the interview that will take place at the Sports School, where the athletes will undergo academic and athletics assessments to determine those who will be granted the scholarship to attend the school.
According to their website the Singapore Sports School is a specialized independent school providing a conducive academic and training environment for teenagers aspiring to be sports athletes.
Officially opened on April 2, 2004 the school accommodates over 400 sports athletes and boasts a sea of record breakers in the sports arena.
The school enables students to balance their academic pursuits alongside intensive sports training with a modular curriculum of study in specialized classrooms. They reside five days a week on a sprawling seven-hectare campus that comes equipped with world-class sporting facilities.
The scholarship recipients will be in receipt of a fully-subsidized academic and sports education at the Singapore Sports School for between four and six years.
Sampson’s mother, Dian Gladstone, will be attending the interview alongside the athlete and in an interview with Stabroek Sport expressed her worry at sending her daughter on the scholarship, should she be awarded one. The petite Sampson also expressed her reluctance to part with her homeland and family and friends to study abroad. Nevertheless both parent and child are willing to see how far this could go, accepting the invitation to at least attend the selection programme. Taking the tender age of her Primary School daughter into consideration, Gladstone said she is not looking to come to any final decision until after she returns from the interview in Singapore. Not wanting to deprive her budding child of a wonderful opportunity, despite her doubts, Gladstone stated that she will be attacking the issue with an open mind, but is not willing to make a full assessment of the situation until she has a chance to talk to people who may very well be in charge of her child for the next four to six years.
Sampson a student of St. Ambrose Primary school, currently participates in the Under-13 category and specializes in the 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m, she is already the holder of a gold and silver nationals medals.
Should Sampson be awarded the scholarship and accept she would still be able to represent Guyana at international events. Sampson will be one of three AAG athletes that have been bequeathed with the opportunity to receive international exposure stemming from YOG activities. The AAG was also given the opportunity to select two athletes to directly participate in the games. AAG President, Colin Boyce, said that it was good to see that the sport was starting to open doors for the athletes and that this goes to show how good the athletes are developing.
Boyce added that Sampson, apart from the age criteria was chosen because of her noteworthy performances in the sport thus far.
The AAG was already given the opportunity to send two athletes to the Games.
The fate of the lucky six athletes is expected to be determined by the committee in July. Six accepting athletes are then expected to attend an award ceremony during the Games in August.