Regional Chairman of Region Nine Clarindo Lucas has said that he is still to receive a report concerning the attendance of Rupununi, District Nine at the National Schools Championships that ended early last month.
Lucas said that he is waiting on the report to investigate issues pertaining to the treatment of the athletes who represented their district at the event.
However, Lucas pointed out that prior to the championships, the Region Nine Regional Democratic Office (RDO) played no part in the athletes’ attendance at the event.
Lucas said that the RDO had not received any correspondence from the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) regarding the athletes’ participation at the event.
And while he is aware of certain unfortunate situations that affected the District Nine team at the championships, Lucas said he was waiting on the report to find out the specifics of what went on.
He said further that when the team returned to the Rupununi, he requested a report from the district head, Terrence Dash, but to date he has not received any.
“The specifics of what happened at the championships were not reported to me, nobody is reporting to me. I raised the matter when Terrence came back and I had demanded a written report but I still haven’t received one. I will be bringing it up on Friday at the Regional Democratic Council meeting,” Lucas said.
“This is the first time that there was such a breakdown in communication, nothing was said to us, we don’t have so much as one piece of correspondence from GTU relative to the schools championships.”
This is what Lucas told Stabroek Sport when he was contacted with regard to reports that Rupununi athletes were mistreated at the championships. On Saturday last these issues had been brought up by a newly-formed committee that is hoping to develop sports and youth-related activities in hinterland areas.
An attendee, Joyce Lawrence, had spoken of a female athlete who had suffered from food poisoning and had to be hospitalized because she had consumed spoilt food and there was also the case of athlete Daniel Felix who had been struck by a car while participating in the 10km event on the East Coast during the championships.
Lucas said he was aware of both cases but was waiting on a report before taking action.
Nicholas Fraser, one of the heads on the management committee of the championships, said that he was not aware of any athlete who had been hospitalized for food poisoning, but he noted that the aspect of meals for the athletes was under the control of the RDO.
Fraser headed the management committee for the championships alongside GTU Sport Secretary Coleen Liddell.
Lucas, however, maintained that to his knowledge every aspect of the team’s attendance at the championships was under the administration of the GTU, as the RDO had received no communication with instructions.
“We would normally provide a little assistance [to the District team] but this time I assume that they had enough resources because they said nothing. Ask them if there is any correspondence from them [GTU] to the Region, they would have nothing to show you,” Lucas said.
However, GTU sports representative and head of the secretariat for the championships, Seon Bristol maintained that the RDO was responsible for transporting the athletes to the Games Village at the championships and to cater meals for the athletes.
“We would normally send correspondence to the Education Office of the respective District’s Region, since the management committee came into place they take care of that aspect. Even if they [RDO] didn’t know, how is it that the team got money to travel, they have to sign off on it,” Bristol said.
Bristol said also that it was the management committee that had the responsibility to communicate with the RDO. He also denied being aware of any athlete being hospitalized for food poisoning, but admitted that it was not until after the championships had long ended that he found out about Felix being struck by a car.
Bristol said that it was a deficiency of the traffic police that led to that as it was their responsibility to regulate the traffic in order to facilitate the athletes’ race.
