By Marlon Munroe
The men and women of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) will be in action against their counterparts from Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados when the 56th edition of the GPF Track & Field Championships gets underway today at the Eve Leary ground.
Today’s activities will commence at 10:00am, weather permitting, and all track events will be qualifiers. However, the discus and long jump events will be contested as finals. The final day of the championships will be on Friday following a rest day on Thursday.
One of the coordinators of the meet Lyndon Wilson, who is also the coach of the Police Progressive Youth Club, said yesterday that all inputs for the successful staging of the meet are in place.
According to Wilson up to yesterday the technical committee of the meet was finalising preparations for the event.
On the other hand, the former national athlete said that the budget to host such a meet stands in the vicinity of $1 million, adding that the meet will benefit from public sector sponsorship.
He also pointed out that while Barbados and T&T servicemen and women have confirmed their participation, it is expected that other countries may arrive on the morning of the event, as has been the case on some occasions.
He did not disclose the three other countries that have not confirmed their participation. But he noted that the meet is usually competitive and said that Guyana will be looking to maintain its stranglehold on its competitors.
Some of the athletes who will be on show today will be Winston George, who created some upsets at the last inter-services games, and former national athletes Michael Saul and Keith Roberts in the 100m. On the distaff side former school champions Leota Bobb and Nadine Rodrigues will clash.
The events scheduled for the day are long jump (men and women), discus (women), 100m for the PPYC athletes, 100m (policewomen and men A and B classes), discus (A-class), 400m (A and B class), 400 (PPYC athletes), long jump (A-class), discuss (B-class), cycling final (400m women, and 800m men), 800m (men A-class) and 3000m (women).
