By Iva Wharton
Judo student Raul Lall is the latest athlete to qualify for the London Olympic Games.
In an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport, the 17-year-old said that he was very excited at the though of representing Guyana.
“I feel proud and excited to have qualified for the Olympics and I think I will do Guyana proud because I will do good,” Lall told this newspaper yesterday.
He said that he started the sport some three years and four months ago because he had an obsession with fitness and loves wrestling.
Asked how difficult it was preparing for the Olympics, Lall had this to say:“It was hard as I was in training for two years and the Vice President of the Judo Association (Geoff)Sankies, said that he was impressed with my performance and thought that I could make the Olympics.”
According to Lall Sankies’ opinion pushed him to work even harder as he wanted the opportunity to compete at the Olympics.
During the short period he started the sport, Lall said that he has won one gold medal, a silver and a bronze medal in international tournaments. The silver medal he copped while competing in Panama. He also has four domestic gold medals, the last of which he won two weeks ago in the National Judo Championship.
Lall said he was informed of his qualification on Tuesday.
“Two weeks ago they told me that they were going to try and see if they can get me in the Olympics,” he said.
Lall’s father Roy, who seems more ecstatic than his son, said that he was proud of his son’s accomplishment.
“I feel very proud of him because I know he is going to do Guyana well because he is my son and he has been training very hard. Most of the competitions he won.”
Lall senior said that he is confident that his son will be good because he also has been in the sport for close to 24 years and based on what he has seen he is pleased and very confident. He said that he also acts as his son’s coach.
“Right now we are doing intensive training and I am sure he will do Guyana well.”
Sankies also said that the Judo Association has been operating under duress as they don’t have a permanent facility. He said that steps were made to ensure that Karate has its own facility, but the same was not done for Judo.
Sankies said that the Association was not preparing Lall for this year’s Olympic, but 2016 as he is still young, but the International Judo Federation thought differently as they said that based on Lall’s performance at his last three international outings, he was eligible. The final decision, he said, was arrived at a meeting of the International Olympic Association’s Tripartite Commission.
Sankies said that he hopes that Lall takes advantage of the opportunity as he can learn from the top class athletes he will be competing alongside at the Olympics.
Guyana, according to Lall, qualified for Olympics in Judo twice before in 1972 and 1976. In 1972, Guyana was represented by Lall’s uncle Raymond Lall and Gordon Sankies in Munich, Germany where the duo did not compete because their names were not registered and as such could not compete.
Then in 1976 after participating in the march past of athletes Dionisio Joseph and Geoffrey Sankies were told to stand down as Guyana was boycotting the Olympics to stand in solidarity with other nations opposing apartheid in South Africa. That decision was made by then President Forbes Burnham.
Guyana is being represented in Judo at the Olympics after 26 years.
