By Floyd Christie
President Bharrat Jagdeo has pledged assistance for the national rugby Sevens team as it ventures to represent Guyana at the Rugby Sevens event of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India on October 11 and 12.
This was disclosed to Stabroek Sport by President of the Guyana Rugby Football Union, Kit Nascimento when contacted via telephone yesterday.
Nascimento has recently been soliciting support for the team from government ministries such as the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sport and has even written President Jagdeo directly.
The GRFU head was gratified to be contacted by Jagdeo on Thursday via telephone to be informed that the government will support the team financially.
In an interview with Stabroek Sport on Wednesday, Nascimento indicated his frustration at not receiving a response from the government, having written them, indicating the financial constraints of the GRFU and the GRFU’s inability to fund the team’s preparation process for the upcoming Commonwealth Games.
“I’ve written to the president directly and copied to the Minister [Dr. Frank Anthony]… I wrote him [Jagdeo] on the 12th of August and I’ve even requested to meet him. I’m still hopeful that he [Jagdeo] will come to our rescue,” Nascimento stated in the interview.
The GRFU head further stated during the interview that he was “very disappointed”, having captured gold for Guyana at the Central American and Caribbean Games, which he observed is “the first ever team award gold”, then triumphing at Caribbean Championships for the fifth time in succession, the GRFU “finds themselves struggling for funds” venturing to a world class tournament like the Commonwealth Games.
Nascimento’s call has somewhat been answered with the president’s phone call on Thursday, since he was concerned that government support would not have arrived prior to the deadline he had set, which is sometime next week, before seeking support in other avenues such as the private sector.
“If we don’t get support by next week we will be really struggling,” Nascimento had said.
This is definitely not the first time Jagdeo has been supporting the team as Nascimento also observed that the team was in a similar situation prior to the CAC Games and the president “came on board” and supported the team as he is doing now.
“I think we have demonstrated that his investment in our team was worthwhile,” Nascimento noted.
According to Nascimento the exact sum of the government’s financial support was not disclosed by the president, but the GRFU will receive support on the basis of his request, since a detailed budget of the funds needed for the team’s preparation was incorporated with Nascimento’s letter to Jagdeo.
“We are getting the support that we have demonstrated on the field of play that we have earned,” Nascimento said.
Road to Commonwealth Games
The team’s preparation for the Commonwealth Games currently entails full fitness training at the National Park, where they are working on strength and plyometrycs, which involves sprint and endurance training.
The current programme is being conducted by player/coach Theodore Henry and prescribed and formulated by the team’s technical director Joe Whipple.
The next step in the team’s preparation regimen takes the squad to Barbados for a four-day training camp, and they are scheduled to depart here on September 18 and will also be competing against and training with the Barbados national rugby Sevens team.
When asked during Wednesday’s interview why the team is being taken to Barbados, Nascimento explained that the trip is logical and necessary since the team has to go through Barbados en route to their next preparation destination, London, England and the team needs “serious competition”.
“We have no competition here, we’re just playing amongst ourselves… we need competition and serious competition,” Nascimento stated.
In addition, camp director Whipple who is based in Barbados has acquired resources to set up the camp and according to Nascimento they “want to hold the four- day camp in an undisturbed environment away from the distractions of home.”
From Barbados the team moves to London to spend five days, from September 24-30 at Loughborough University, where they will be hosted and will undergo mainly competition-like training.
“We will be training and preparing at some of the best facilities in the United Kingdom at the university and they have also arranged a high level Sevens tournament on Sunday before we leave for India,” Nascimento stated.
The team will arrive in India on October 1 in time for the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games and they will partake in further practice matches.
A practice match against Canada has already been arranged and a practice match against the current International Rugby Board World Sevens Series Champions Samoa is currently being arranged.
