President of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA), KA Juman Yassin has concluded that for Guyana to do better at world class competitions such as the just-concluded London Olympic Games, more investment must be made to help the athletes to become professionals instead of being part-time competitors.
The GOA was finally speaking out about Guyana’s Olympic performance at a press conference yesterday at its head office, High Street, Kingston, following the team’s return just over a week ago on the evening of August 13.
Yassin, while accepting that the team’s performance was disappointing, said he believed that the athletes did their best given their respective circumstances and facilities that they have to make do with on a day-to-day basis.
“Looking at our athletes performances before the Olympics we all could have probably gauged what their performances would have been like at the Olympics with the exception of Aliann (Pompey) and while it was a disappointing team performance, our athletes did their best at the time,” Yassin told the media.
He also complimented the British High Commissioner, Andrew Ayre, for his hospitality towards the team whilst stating that he thought the Olympics was well organized on the whole.
According to Yassin, the numerous volunteers who worked at the various outposts did a good job.
President of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) Colin Boyce, who was also the manager of the athletics team, gave his assessment of the athletes’ performances which he deemed under par.
“I consider it an under par performance especially by Aliann (Pompey). I am still surprised at her performance and I think she could have done better. Whatever the reason for such a poor performance by her is still unknown. When it comes to (Winston) George, after the six-month training stint in Jamaica he indicated that there was limited competition in Jamaica although there was some injury issues with him.
“Bascom, on the other hand, did not even run close to his personal best time which equalled Guyana’s record by James Gilkes… so there are different things we have to put into thought for the upcoming Olympics,” Boyce stated.
Turning to swimming, the manager and coach of the team Shawn Baksh, was more supportive of his team by commending his swimmers for their performances in the pool.
“Well our swimmers got the Olympics via the wild card nomination and I think they did what was expected of them given the competition. I was pleased. One thing I know affected them was the temperature of the water which was very cold and caused them to have cramps but I was pleased with them,” Baksh commented.
The lone judoka, Raul Lall, was praised by his manager Geoffrey Sankies who believes that Lall is a good prospect for the 2016 Games.
“Lall was also granted the wild card option due to his performances and was only made aware of it two months before the Olympics but he was still well prepared with his last competition being in March.
“He had practice sessions in London and drew a bye for the first round but lost to a judoka from Saudi Arabia who finished seventh overall while Lall finished 17th and will be a good prospect for 2016 which is what we were looking at,” said Sankies.
