From Orin Davidson
in New York
Now that the blame game over Guyana’s disappointing performance at the London Olympic Games is behind us, a golden opportunity has presented itself for the protagonists to back up the talk and throw maximum support behind this country’s participation at the upcoming Junior CARIFTA Games.
In less than a month the Caribbean’s premier junior athletics competition will get underway in The Bahamas and in timely manner, Guyana has a golden opportunity to reap its largest harvest of medals since our best years in the 1970s.
So far a strong, nine-member team, comprising six local athletes who made the Athletics Association of Guyana’s (AAG) qualifying standards, along with Guyana’s most accomplished junior athlete of all time Kadecia Baird, have been selected, giving Guyana its best chance to get back on the Caribbean athletics map.
The championships have arrived not long after the Ministry of Youth Culture and Sports’ Director Neil Kumar and Guyana Olympics Association (GOA) president K. Juman-Yassin engaged in a long running war of words after the local team returned home an undistinguished bunch from London.
It is immaterial at this stage to debate who won that battle. Rather the onus now should be for Guyana to ensure it wins the battle to regain some measure of respect at CARIFTA this year.
This is where the Ministry ought to amends and make right its priority of sports funding by ensuring that a full strength Guyana team makes its way to The Bahamas at the end of the month.
Despite being in transition following the just-concluded elections, the new AAG executive is now coming to grips with the task of repairing its dysfunctional state with a dry bank account, following the previous administration’s best efforts.
In so doing, the association unearthed unheard of talent with a number of dazzling performances at its trials and Developmental Meet, held within the last two weeks.
The group includes 14-year old middle distance phenom Cassie George, whose astounding four minutes 44.l seconds run in the 1500 metres, makes her a shoo-in for a medal in the under-17 event.
Double CARIFTA Games gold medalist Jevina Straker is also back to her best and along with the New York-based trio spearheaded by Baird, one gets the feeling Guyana is back on track to replicate its feats from the days when June Marcia Griffith, Jennifer Innis, Vigil Lewis, Anthony October and Oslen Barr among others ensured Guyana reaped gold, silver and bronze at every CARIFTA Games for most of the 1970s.
Yet, despite those stellar performances, none compares to Baird’s historic 51.04 seconds 400m silver medal run last year in Spain when she became the first Guyanese to medal at the World Junior Athletics Championships.
One cannot help sounding like a broken record, but it is incumbent that the ministry understands the magnitude of Baird’s performance last year. Her time is not only a Caribbean record, meaning that none of the powerful Jamaicans or other Caribbean girls’ Under-20 athletes, have come close to running as fast, it is also the second fastest 400m run by any Guyanese woman behind Aliann Pompey’s national record of 50.71.
It means Baird will be an overwhelming favorite to win gold in the event and, along with the other eight team members, it is imperative the Government ensures the full team competes in The Bahamas.
If Baird wants her personal coach Shaun Dietz to go, so be it, he must go.
Given the ministry’s apparent neglect of Baird’s accomplishment, because so far not one word of praise has been publicly dispatched to the youngster, it has much to amend for.
The ministry’s National Sports Awards panelists, among other issues, committed a major travesty by completely overlooking Baird’s feat for the 2012 junior sportswoman award.
That issue is fodder for another debate, as it is vitally significant now that the ministry understands the importance of the CARIFTA Games.
It has been the stepping stone for all of the great Caribbean athletes currently taking the world by storm.
Yes, Usain Bolt, considered now the greatest men’s sprinter of all time, given his world records and gold medals had vital exposure at CARIFTA in his formative years. So were Veronica Campbell, Shelly-Ann Fraser, Yohan Blake, Melanie Walker, Kirani James and of course Keshorn Walcott –all Olympic and world champions, among others.
Yet the ministry has provided little or no financial support for Guyana CARIFTA teams over the years.
At the same time it has been pouring millions of dollars into this country’s participation at the little known Inter Guiana Games, which is another travesty. In terms of strength of exposure, the Inter Guianas, compared to the CARIFTA Games is like a Volkswagen to a Ferrari.
So it makes absolute sense that Kumar cut his Inter Guiana Games budget or do otherwise to ensure this year’s CARIFTA Games team is fully represented with a full complement of coaches to compete and win medals in the strongest junior athletics competition for the English, French, Dutch and Spanish speaking Caribbean.
Regardless of the high cost for this year’s CARIFTA participation, it would be the best investment the government can make in a long time for athletics.
Neighboring Trinidad and Tobago, has selected a 44-member team, fully funded by the government as is the Jamaica contingent, which is even larger.
On the contrary the sports fraternity here is tired of hearing of non Inter- Guiana athletics teams, being denied international exposure because of lack of government funding.
It is also incumbent that the best local athletics coach Leslie Black be a part of a fully financed team to CARIFTA 2013. The coach is just as important as the athlete for success and Black with his unmatched success is a no-brainer for the position.
He personally coached Cleveland Forde to three CARIFTA gold medals, Straker to two gold, Alika Morgan to three silver and two bronze, Ricardo Martin to a bronze and Janella Jonas to a bronze. Also, Reona Cornette, the Caribbean’s best junior girls’ half marathoner in 2006-07 was one of his charges.
Incidentally, Guyana’s best CARIFTA performance in recent years, which comprised three medals in 2009 in St Lucia, was a team coached by Black, who has given his services voluntarily for more than 20 years.
In giving priority to funding the building of an Olympic sized swimming pool ahead of an all-weather track athletics facility, the government provided another example of mis-prioritizing its resources for sports, as the potential for swimming success was and is nothing compared to athletics, given the exploits of world class runners, the likes of James Wren Gilkes, who was sure to win this country’s first Olympics gold medal were it not for that unfortunate Government boycott of the 1976 Games.
Now that the athletics facility is being built, it would be foolhardy to think our athletes will reap world success competing among themselves at Leonora. They need the exposure that meets like CARIFTA can provide, to rise to the top.
Baird was an unknown before she emigrated to America, where the exposure catapulted her to world class status.
It goes without saying that our sports persons are fast learners and like Baird, the sky is the limit for Straker, George and others, with such competition.
So Minister Frank Anthony and Director Kumar, the ball is firmly in your court to ensure our 11-member team and coaches are not denied this year at CARIFTA.
Athletics deserves a better share of your sports budget, beginning today.
