With Guyana failing to medal in both swimming and judo, two out of the three sporting disciplines they are participating in at the 2012 London Olympics, all eyes will now be on the track and field segment for a possible medal when the competition runs off tomorrow at the London Olympic Stadium.
Both local swimmers Nail Roberts and Britany Van Lange crashed out in their first round heats with fourth place finishes while Raul Lall also failed to make it past the first round in the judo competition.
Now it is all up to two debutants in local 400 metres star Winston George and joint national 100 metres record holder, USA-based Jeremy Bascom along with two-time 400 metres Commonwealth medalist Aliann Pompey to possibly grab Guyana’s second medal in Olympic history.
Pompey, who will be making her fourth appearance at the Olympics, and her last possibly, will be the first of the three Guyanese sprinters to take the track in the women’s 400 metres on day one at 12:00hrs London time.
With 51 entrants in the 400 metres women including American Sanya Richards-Ross and Great Brittan’s Christine Ohuruogu, Pompey should be able to make it past the first round with the level of experience she has had throughout the years, especially since she faced most of her opponents at the Commonwealth Games in 2012 when she won silver.
Turning to the debutants, both George and Bascom will see their first action on day two of the world’s greatest sporting stage.
Bascom will be the first of the two to enter the blocks in the men’s 100 metres preliminary rounds with George featuring later.
Bascom recently equalled James Wren Gilkes’s 34-year-old 100 metres record of 10.19s which was a ‘B’ standard qualifying time for the Olympics.
He will have a lot of work to do if he is to get past the first two rounds but if he can produce that same type of performance as he did when he equalled the national record or better he should be in with a chance to reach as far as the semifinal rounds and possibly the final if he can run a sub ten time which is not far off 10.19s.
Turning to the local star, George is Guyana’s wild card in the men’s 400 metres due to the fact that his never-say-die attitude and high spirit for tough competition brings out the best in him in pressure situations.
George’s local and limited international career is nothing short of outstanding as he always seems to rise to the occasion when it matters most like when he qualified for the Olympics with a silver medal run at the ALBA games last year or most recently when he brought second at the Trinidad senior nationals.
A policeman, George was bursting with enthusiasm before he left for London and his fearless attitude towards any type competition should bode well for him to hopefully make it as far as the finals.
But with all three track athletes making the Olympic ‘B’ standard time for their respective events, they will definitely have to take each round as serious as the final if they are to make any impact on the biggest, most prestigious track and field competition in the World.
