-The unbelievable story of Winston George, Guyana’s first locally-based athlete to qualify for the Olympic Games in over a decade
Four years ago Winston George had no idea that he would be at the next Olympics Games. The Olympic Games is a dream that most athletes have but four years ago, George had not even been looking that far.
Instead, four years ago, George was just “trying out something new”. As funny as it might seem, George confessed that four years ago the only running he did was running after girls with his friends in his neighbourhood. The Plaisance boy, now turned Olympian was not even the fastest in the street.
“All I used to be doing is running behind girls with my friend Spooner (Bevon) on the corner, George stated.
“Spooner used to be faster than me but then after a while I started beating him,” George added. Occasionally George and Spooner would play basketball since Spooner was the star point guard who led Cummings Lodge Secondary to victory in the Guyana Secondary School Basketball Association League in 2007.
George on the other hand had no history of success in sports at that time. The 45-second miler was not afraid to admit that he never even made it to Inter School track and field championship.
“If you check the records you would see I never made nationals or nothing like that… come to think of it not even inter schools or inter zone,” George added. George may not be too disappointed by that in retrospect considering now he has already rubbed shoulders with world’s fastest man Usain Bolt, trained alongside 100m world champion Yohan Blake and placed second to 2011 400m World Champion Kirami James all in the last six months.
As history has it, George, now 25 only started to take running just over three years ago when he joined the Guyana Police Force (GPF). The much hyped GPF championships attracted George as he entered the Force as a trainee and hoping to outshine his fellow lawmen, George stuck to his training and won all the sprint events in the B class. But settling for B class champion was not good enough and George wanted to become the GPF’s most outstanding athlete.
“There was a guy named Michael Saul and he was the champion there and the fastest athlete in the force,” George said.
The drive to defeat Saul propelled George to train even harder and he began to see the results. At the 2010 Inter-Services Championships in 2010, George ran down former national senior and under 23 champion Rupert Perry in one of the fastest 200m races on local soil. Perry clocked an unbelievable time of 20.8 seconds while George who was in the same frame and was pipped on the line was given 21s flat. Still in the shadows of Perry in the 100m and Guyana Defence Force sprinter Patrick King in 400m, George was motivated to train even harder.
Finally in 2011 George got his chance to shine. After gaining the respect in the GPF as one of the fastest lawmen in the land, George got the opportunity to compete in Trinidad and Barbados at their respective Police championships. George them got his first major win at the Falcon Games in Trinidad and Tobago where he secured a 47-second 400m victory.
With the country’s fastest time of the distance, George and Perry were selected to compete at the Pan American Games in Puerto Rico, but the both were denied visas by the US embassy. As a last resort George and Perry got to compete in the Alba Games in Venezuela.
“They said that we didn’t have string enough family ties or something like that but even though I was really disappointed, I was just happy that I got to on another tour,” George said.
George said that competing overseas gave him such an exhilarating feeling, running on a better surface in big stadiums and places where athletics is taken seriously.
With some inspirational words from Running Brave coach Julian Edmonds, George said that he took to the track in the 400m heat at the Alba Games and comfortably ran 47 seconds for the second time in his life. After reaching that mark once again, George believed that he could win the final and with the resolute determination, he managed to clocked his personal best 45.86s and place second by the thinnest of margins.
George recently returned from the High Performance Training Centre in Jamaica and has been back to his work at the GPF sports department while training every afternoon. The recent rainy condition has hampered George’s preparation yet he continues to train even if it means slipping in the soggy conditions during starts.
On some occasions, George has been forced in the sand over the seawalls just to keep active. All the while, George never complains but keeps his positive outlook. In spite of the fact that most of the regional athletes in his event were exposed to a full training cycle to prepare for the even while George just got a few months, he remains positive and resolves to make it to the finals. Even though most of the teams are already in London, training and becoming acclamisedwhile George is departing a few hours before the opening ceremony, he remains positive and confident, looking to do his country proud.
In fact, it is that demeanour that he thinks got him this far and wished to encourage other athletes to follow suit.
“You just have to believe you can do it. Just keep working hard, listen to your coach and keep pushing yourself and you will get there,” George advised.
The 25-year old sprinter, who recently benefited from the generosity of Fitness Express, warned athletes not to get caught up in all the hype and boasting that may at times accompany success.
“Just tell yourself, I can do, I know I can do it and I will do it,” George said modestly. Finally George wanted to thank God for giving his unexpected opportunity and remains confident that God will help him accomplish yet another dream of making it to the finals.
