Coach of the University of Guyana (UG) Track and Field Club Anson Ambrose is confident that his club will be able to make an impression at the Athletics Association of Guyana’s (AAG) first developmental meet today at the Police Sports Club ground, Eve Leary.
The meet, which is to be hosted by the Police Progressive Youth Club, will be UG track club’s first AAG track meet. Earlier this month the club fielded a hand full of athletes at the AAG’s National Cross Country Championships in the National Park.
Looking ahead to today’s event Ambrose stated:“We are looking forward to a keenly-contested competition, among the clubs, showing the clubs that we can compete with them and I am also hoping to see from fast time so that we can make our presence felt.”
According to Ambrose, close to 20 of the club’s athletes will be in competition tomorrow competing in a nearly all the event’s on today’s schedule. Since the club’s membership is not limited to University students, national athletes such as Phillip Drayton, Wayne Harlequin and emerging junior middle distance sensation Ornesto Thomas will also be representing the club.
Athletes of the club that are UG students include former Queen’s College sprint champion Drexel Noble, Daniel Frank, Kiswanna Jefford, Kezia Best, Elton Bollers, Ian Campbell, Carlwyn Collins and Tasnica Lovell.
Ambrose, the former coach of the Royal Youth Movement, said that he is eager to see how his athletes, especially the newcomers, will perform under the pressure of an AAG meet against seasoned athletes.
In spite of the fact that most of their off-season training was affected by the rain, Ambrose said that the club was still able to put in a considerable amount of work. According to Ambrose the inclement weather over the last month or so, has rendered the UG ball field unusable for athletics. Nevertheless, Ambrose said that he has found innovative ways of using other parts of the campus to complete some of his training regimen.
Harlequin, who recently returned to local track and field after a brief stint in Trinidad and Tobago, was able to clock 1:57 in an 800m race close to two weeks ago. Ambrose said that he was impressed with that performance and is confident that Harlequin will be able to better it this weekend.
Ambrose also stated that this weekend’s event will aid in his club’s preparation for the Falcon Invitational Games in Trinidad and Tobago, March 22-24.
The UG track club was originally scheduled to compete again this year at the Barbados Relay fair but pulled out of the competition since the organisers decided to stage the meet at a grass track rather than the National Stadium in St Michael.
The recently established UG track and field club will be debuting at that meet this year so Ambrose is delighted to have his athletes warm up at the series of developmental meets.
