Former head coach of the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA), Vibart Charles passed away in the morning hours of Wednesday last in California, USA at the age of 63.
A longstanding ally of the swimming fraternity in Guyana, and a former national swimming coach, Charles initially began in the sport as an athlete before becoming a lifeguard and swimming instructor, and subsequently a member of the GASA.
Charles’ brother, Gerald Charles, in a telephone interview with this publication yesterday confirmed Charles’ passing. Saddened at the loss of his brother, Gerald said he was all the more grief stricken since he hadn’t seen his brother in six years since Charles migrated to the USA.
Upstanding, dedicated, and a man of principles were just some of the ways in which Charles was described when Stabroek Sport contacted a few of his local associates and friends yesterday.
“He was a very dedicated fellow, the interest of the swimmers always came first, he was very dedicated to swimming, and he was also very straightforward,” was how Dudley Kirton, a close personal friend of Charles, described him. Former Secretary of the GASA, Charles Corbin, recalls having befriended Charles in the late 1960s when the two competed in the sport as athletes. The two later became further associated when they became involved in the sport at the administrative level.
“At the time when I met him he came up to Linden to compete, this was way back in the late 60s, early 70s, I would have been a teenager at the time. He later moved on to be trained as a lifeguard and a trained swimming instructor. He never broke off from swimming, even after being an athlete he always continued with it. He served on the committee in the reorganization of GASA, when swimming was resuscitated in 1993 he was one of the core members,” Corbin reminisced
“He served as chairman of the technical committee, before we had the technical committee we had what we called the National Head Coach, he served as the National Head Coach up until GASA set up a formal committee, which was in the 1990s, and he was the chairman of that committee. He served as the chairman of that committee until he left sometime in the 2000s,” Corbin said.
Corbin remembers him as an athlete who specialized in the breaststroke, and a member of the disbanded Penguin Water Polo and Swim Club which was based at the Luckhoo Swimming Pool.
President of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA), K. Juman Yassin, expressed his condolences to the family of Charles, a man he described as someone who “played a very integral part in the association.”
“He played a very physical part in the training of the students and in their preparation for IGG [Inter Guiana Games]. He was always approachable and always interested in the sport, always willing to assist and willing to take on responsibilities,” Yassin said. A former president of the GASA, Yassin served at the head of the association for several years while Charles was on the committee.
Charles leaves behind two children, son Geovani and daughter Lavern. According to his brother, Charles’ children are still in the process of finalizing his funeral arrangement. He will be buried in the USA.
