Dear Editor,
I am not a dedicated sports fan, but I do try to keep abreast of sports in my beloved Guyana, because I believe that Guyanese sportsmen and women have tremendous talent, and given the opportunity they could make Guyana a country to talk about worldwide.
First of all, my sympathy is extended to Miss Guyana, Alisha Fortune and Mr Guyana, Clint Duke Lack for missing the 38th IFBB Central American & Caribbean (CAC) Amateur Bodybuilding and Fitness Championships to be held in Aruba this weekend. I cannot tell how disappointed these two people must have felt when they heard they could not be there to represent their country, not because of any fault of theirs, but because the Guyana Amateur Body Building and Fitness Federation and the Government of Guyana could not raise the funds for them to attend. It’s hard to believe that the federation doesn’t have money to send these athletes and they have to go and seek funds when the event is just about to be held. If the event is a yearly one, what were the officials doing all the time?
Editor, these athletes were going to represent Guyana, not themselves alone and if they couldn’t go to the event then the government should have intervened, just as when the President of Guyana intervened and got cricket shown in Guyana. They should have made sure that the athletes were present at the championships, because Ms Alisha Fortune was placed 5th in her debut at last year’s CAC championships, and that was her first time there. Now we will never know what would have been the result. I have heard that the government only concentrates on certain sports and this incident would only confirm that what I was hearing was true. It would be nice to hear what the all athletes have to say, especially those who didn’t get to go.
Over the years I would occasionally read with great happiness of Ms Nicolette Fernandes’s achievements in squash, both locally and internationally. Her name is the most outstanding to me in terms of local athletes in Guyana, but if you ask any young person if they have heard of her, you will get a negative answer – or they might have heard of her but don’t know what she does. I always wonder why she is not more popular in our country. For a long time now, I had come to the conclusion that the reason why she is not cherished by the Guyanese public is because she is not being sponsored and advertised by the Government of Guyana and the business entities. However, she still continues by the grace of God and I do hope she doesn’t get the kind of disappointment that the Guyana Amateur Body Building and Fitness Federation athletes faced.
For most athletes in Guyana, sponsorships are the main source of income for them to keep playing, but the only time I see them being sponsored is after they have won a championship. Editor, what is hurtful to know is that the sponsorships don’t last for a long time. When a company sponsors someone, part of the deal I believe is that his/her picture has to be on billboards and they have to act in video commercials. For a number of years I have seen Ms Nicolette Fernandes in a commercial advertising water, and that same commercial is shown year after; there is no new video or commercial with her. I want to know if that company pays her every year or they just pay her to act in that video one time. If the latter is the case, I think it is an injustice. Apart from that video commercial the other commercial I saw her in was the ad with the sea turtles, and if that is the way that young woman gets repaid for making Guyana proud, then something must really be wrong. What is ironic is that there are lots of big businesses in Guyana that have video commercials with actresses/actors advertising their products; why can’t the businesses give these local athletes an equal chance? If they gave the countless athletes here that are begging for exposure in Guyana an equal chance, it could avoid future embarrassment such as the Guyana Amateur Body Building and Fitness Federation just faced.
Yours faithfully,
Sahadeo Bates