Dear Editor,
Permit me space to voice the concerns of a few athletes over the AAG’s selection of the South American Games team. As an athletics lover I feel compelled to write after listening to arguments by both present and past athletes over the selection. The team’s composition is as follows: Winston George (Police), 200m and 400m; Cleveland Forde (GDF), 1500m and 5000m; Wayne Harlequin, 400m and 800m; Cleveland Thomas, 800m and 1500m; and Alika Morgan, 1500m and 5000m.
It would be very nice to know what criteria were used to arrive at this team. While there does not seem to be a problem with Winston George, Cleveland Forde and Cleveland Thomas there are questions over the other two athletes. What are the performances of Wayne Harlequin and where for the last two years has he competed in Guyana – or is his selection based on past performances? The selection of Alika Morgan seems to have attracted much more attention. Morgan is known for road races (despite not being as successful as Eulene Josiah). She was a member of the team which participated in the 3rd Islamic Games in Jakarta. Her performances were not good with timings way below those of our two junior females (Cassey George and Jevina Straker). Her coach saw it fit to withdraw her from the team due to late notice (to save the embarrassment).
Her replacement by the former and aging sprint queen Alisha Fortune (defeated by Alisha Moore in 2013) is an indication that the President of the AAG is not serious about the future of the sport.
Is it that we do not have better athletes based locally if the overseas-based athletes were overlooked? Some names readily come to mind, such as Leslain Baird (GDF) now national record holder in the javelin; Natasha Alder (Police), also a national record holder in the javelin; Julio Sinclair (Police), unbeaten in the Shot Put for the past three years; Kevin Bayley (Police) a consistent 1 min 57 secs talented young athlete who defeated the talented Cleveland Forde in the 800m in 2013. Why were these athletes not considered; why were they overlooked? From listening to them they were of the belief that because they are from the military they are being victimized. I hope this is not so but would be happy to see a response from the AAG, and if they are really serious about Olympics 2016 then the focus should be on the more talented youths and juniors and they should be the ones to invest in.
Yours faithfully,
Clement Peters
