World renowned track star and Linden’s own Marian Burnett arrived in Guyana Monday night to fulfill her promise of participating in the third edition of the President’s/Jefford Track and Field Classic scheduled for May 20th at the Mackenzie Sports Club ground in Linden.
Burnett is scheduled to take part in the international women’s 800 and 1500 metres on a ground she is most familiar with since she started her career there in the early 90s.
Known for her exploits in the middle distance events Burnett will come up against Kenisha Pascal of Grenada along with other athletes from Suriname and Trinidad who are yet to be confirmed.
She will also have the pleasure of running alongside local distance queen Alika Morgan and two-time 1500 metres gold medallist at the Carifta Games, Jevina Straker.
Burnett in a statement yesterday indicated that she was happy to be home to compete after such a long time. Taking a break to concentrate on her family, the track star who has numerous accolades to her name, returned to the track sometime in February with the goal of qualifying for her third Olympic Games, scheduled for London, England, according to a press release.
It will be no easy task to defeat Burnett in front of her home crowd as she has disclosed in her statement that she is on a mission to be back in the top 10 middle distance athletes in the world and looks forward to putting on a show.
Burnett competed at both the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and 2008 Beijing Games. She also was a NCAA Indoor Champion in 2002 for Louisiana State University and was also a former world leader in the 800m and 1500m events.
The three-time National ‘Sportswoman of the Year’ has a personal best time of 4:17.91 in Rio de Janeiro in 2007 in the 1500m and 1:59.47 in the 800m.
Meanwhile Burnett who is happy to be competing at Guyana’s marquee track event will be addressing the media today at 11:00hrs.
