-wants Lotto funds to go to sports
President of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) KA Juman Yassin believes that investing in sports at the school level will help benefit the nation in the long run.
“Jamaica’s success came about from the school level so we must invest in the schools,” Yassin stated at a press conference yesterday at the GOA’s head office as he gave his opinion on what can help with Guyana’s future success.
“In Great Britain there was a call that state schools were not doing well at sports and that the private schools, because of their facilities, were better off. Now, the government is about to invest one billion pounds into state schools there. We don’t have that kind of money but we must start somewhere and it is with the schools,” Yassin said at the press conference.
While the Olympic performance by Guyana was not as expected by many, Yassin indicated that out of 204 countries 119 failed to win any medal at the Olympics including Guyana.
Yassin also pointed out that in Track and Field, First World countries such as Australia only took home three medals and Great Britain six, pointing to all the major facilities and advancements they had compared to Guyana.
The GOA president said he also believes that boxing is a sport that should bring Guyana more Olympic success but a significant investment needs to be made to the sport.
“Well I believe that if our boxers stayed amateur a little longer they would be better as soon as they win nine to 10 fights they go pro and miss fundamental stuff and they don’t become that much better. I have talked to Peter Abdool and we are working on plans to help improve this,” Yassin said.
He also said he believes that more funding should be thrown behind sports if a significant mark should be made by Guyana in the world.
“The government needs to get more involved and more committed to sports, money should also come from the lotto fund to help sports in this country and that is a major issue,” he added.
Yassin was also critical of the government and called the relationship between them a two way street.
“The government says we don’t come to them for help but I don’t see anything wrong with them coming and asking us how they can help?
“We were in a position to sponsor our athletes but not some coaches and other aspects that they could have helped with, the relationship is a two way street,” Yassin argued.
Meanwhile Yassin says he supports all his sub associations and will be meeting with the various associations to see their problems and plan ahead as they look to better the future of sports in Guyana.
