After 51 years of hosting the National Schools Athletics, Cycling and Swimming Championships through the collaboration of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, the Ministry of Education and the Guyana Teachers Union, a number of glitches still seem to prevail.
The event which is being staged at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence got off to a very late start on the first day, owing to mid-morning showers. However, after the rains subsided disorganisation quickly took over leading to track officials walking off late in the afternoon because they did not have a meal break.
And this occurred just before the start of the 100 metres heats at 16:26 hours.
Observers also noted that Minister of Education Shaik Baksh who declared the sports open made his opening speech under the protection of an umbrella while the athletes stood in the pouring rain. Persons then wondered whether listening to an opening speech or the health of the athletes was more important.
Meanwhile for the past three years it was noted that the opening ceremony, along with the 4×400 metres relay event, would take place the day before the Track & Field events but this was pushed to yesterday according to some district heads who asked to remain anonymous.
Absence of batons
Moreover, when the 4×400 metres event was called yesterday the absence of batons forced the event to be postponed.
Things came to a head when the starter for the races had to resort to an outdated blast of the whistle instead of the sound of the pistol. Some athletes even voiced their dissatisfaction at this measure while others stated that these important aspects should have been sorted out before the start of such an important event.
Meanwhile, because of the 13:30 hours start the 100m and 800m finals were postponed to today, which will strain the scheduled programme and possibly tire athletes who have to compete in more than one event.
Stabroek Sport also learnt last evening that there will be no use of the lights since district heads were told at a meeting that the lights were under repair and will be ready for tomorrow. This newspaper also learnt from sources that the initial idea not to have the use of the lights was because they were too expensive to rent.
The cost, it was learnt, is $50,000 per hour.
Head of the Allied Arts Department of the Ministry of Education, Nicolas Fraser agreed that the event had issues.
“Well we definitely have a few issues surrounding the whole thing, especially late entries and we will have to have a meeting, then we will release a statement… I know the media have questions and we will try to address them after the meeting,” Fraser told Stabroek Sport.
Meanwhile the event is slated to continue today from 09:00hrs.
