Half a decade ago, he was fastest junior athlete on local shores, representing Guyana at nearly every junior local and international meet then he prematurely put away his spikes and called it quits for his athletic career.
However, this week at the University of Guyana’s (UG) 2012 Athletics Championships, Goddis Accra will be making his much anticipated return to track and field as he looks to regain the motivation and passion for the sport he once loved.
The 24-year old former national junior sprint champion only recently began attending the university and is an architecture student within the Faculty of Technology. Accra who has not been in a formal training or competition cycle since the year 2008, said that he was enthused about this week’s competition and will be looking to take part in as many events as possible. This time around, the former CARIFTA Games participant said that he is not looking to break records or silence opponents.
“I’m just competing for the fun of it, so you’ll even see me doing field events; maybe the shot put and the javelin,” Accra said.
Before he called it quits on his athletic career, Accra had posted personal records of 10.45 seconds in the 100m and 21.7s in the 200m. Accra had competed in the South American Junior Championships in Argentina in 2005 and the CARIFTA Games in Guadeloupe in 2006. Accra also participated in an international church competition in Korea in 2007 and medalled in both the 100m and 200m.
Accra told Stabroek Sports that after he attained the age of a senior competition, he was forced to call it quits since he had begun working and could not find the time to train. Additionally, there were not many meets being held at that time for senior competitors and his only opponent locally was former national senior champion Rawle Greene.
Now a full time student at UG, Accra said that he can afford to train a few days a week as his time table will allow it. With that in mind, Accra wants to use UG sports to try to regain the love and enthusiasm that he once had for athletics.
Accra said Competitors and enthusiasts can lookout for him in all of the sprint event; the 100m, 200m and the 400m. During his glory days, Accra was never fond of the quarter mile and stuck to the short sprints although his coaches Lyndon Wilson and Elton Smith had attempted to persuade him to switch on several occasions.
When asked what to expect from him in those events, Accra extinguished all expectations of a commanding return to the sport.
“Don’t expect anything too impressive. I’m not exactly looking to win but I’m not looking to get last either,” Accra said.
Accra’s main focus is trying to regain his passion for athletics, so although he is looking to give a good solid performance, he knows that success does not come overnight. Accra said that he knows that he will be going up against some seasoned sprinters who have been training consistently while he had abandoned that aspect of his life. Accra did promise however, that once things go well, he is hoping to dominate in the 2013 edition of the championships since that would be ample time for him to regain his form and get back to his winnings ways if he decided to fully come out of retirement.
