The Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) said “participation was excellent” and it accomplished all its goals at its recent Olympic Day activity hosted at the Colgrain Swimming Pool.
This is the second year the GASA is hosting the games, though only four of the seven planned events were held. With the hosting of the games, GASA now joins a number of sport associations that host an Olympic Day activity. On Saturday the Cycling Association hosted their games; the athletics, weightlifting, rugby, and karate associations are already a part of the clan.
At the close of the activities, GASA Secretary Karen Pilgrim declared “it was a good day.” “Under the Olympic Day activities there are three themes, which are move, learn and discover, and I think we accomplished all three today,” Pilgrim said, adding “participation was excellent. We had about 50 persons participating, perhaps a quarter of which was not our usual swimmers and that would fall under the discover aspect of it.”
Swimmers participated in the Body Board relay, Pajama relay, T – 10 Swim, and Mini Water Polo. The Lime and Spoon relay, the Ping Pong Ball relay – blow the ball, and the “Stuff it” or ‘Wear it” Relay were cancelled.
Brittany van Lange emerged the winner in the T – 10 Swim; the only individual event. The swimmer who completed the most lengths in 10 minutes was judged the winner. Competing against 23 participants, van Lange completed 32 lengths, followed by Jamie Jabar, Athena Gaskin and Hannibal Gaskin who all completed 28 lengths and Andrew Wellington who completed 27 lengths.
The Mini Water Polo was contested by 8 teams consisting of four persons each; the goalie and three field players. This ended with two teams in the top spot but the age difference of the two teams made a finals competition unfair.
A 17-and-over team comprising Damien Pilgrim, Kevin De Moura, Allan Lowe and Havier Amir emerged the victors after they achieved a 1 – 0 win over a team comprising Matthew Garrett, Andrew Wellington, Xavier Troyer, and Aquan Federicks. Lowe scored the only goal.
Additionally, a 12-and-under team comprising Michael Rowe, Shaqueel Amin, Omar Dunn and Hannibal Gaskin defeated a team comprising Jerrel Troyer, Delaney Helwig, Dominic Helwig and Nkosi Beaton with a 5 – 0 win. Rowe scored two of the goals, while the remaining three goals were scored by Gaskin.
The Pajama relay, which was contested by four teams, was won by the team comprising Tiffany De Moura, Sherry Rodrigues, Rila Harlequin, and Keziah Nestor. This was the only team that played by the rules.
In the Body Board Relay again two teams remained in the top spot, this time it was because the availability of time impeded a final show down. Team 1 comprising Kevon De Moura, Michael Rowe, Athena Gaskin, Delaney Helwg and Omar Adams shared the top spot with Team 2 consisting of Sheik Amir, Hannibal Gaskin, Sherry Rodrigues, Tiffany De Moura and David Adams.
Olympic Day is held annually on June 23 and is celebrated by thousands of people in over 160 countries.
It commemorates the birth of the modern-day Olympic Games. It is an international effort to promote fitness and well-being in addition to Olympic ideals of fair play, perseverance, respect and sportsmanship.
The events are hosted by the National Olympic Committee in each country.
The GASA also hosted a ‘Fish and Chips’ lime alongside the games to raise funds for its swimmers to participate in the Goodwill Games in Suriname set for August.
