Sprinter Winston George aims to put Guyana on the world map at this year’s London Olympics where he is set to run the 400m at the London Olympics in August.
George was the only locally based athlete to meet the Olympic qualifying standard in the 400 metres event when he won silver in the 400m in a running time of 45:01s at the 2011 Bolivarian Alliance for the People of our America (ALBA) games. In attempting this feat, he will become the only locally-based Track and Field athlete to do so in the nation’s history.
“Well, I feel good, it’s a great feeling to know that you will represent your country at such a meet like the Olympics,” he told Stabroek Sport in a telephone interview. His main intention is to win gold and to take Guyana to another level. “Well I’m looking forward to…putting Guyana on the map to give other athletes opportunities and to help inspire them to become better. I just want to help Guyana move forward in athletics,” he said.
Regarding his training regime for the prestigious event, George is expected to attend a high performance training centre in Jamaica, according to president of the Athletic Association of Guyana. George says he has never attended a training programme of that kind, so he has great expectations and plans to put his shoulder to the wheel to boost his performance before the Olympics. “Training home is coming along quite fine, I’m doing what I use to do and more so training is going well,” he said, regarding his current training programme.
While the talented 400 metres specialist said he didn’t like to pronounce on the future he expects to run faster times in order to make his country proud. “I don’t like to speculate but I expect to be running a little faster than I’m doing right now when the Olympics come around,” he said.
