As National Elections Day nears, the tube, the radio waves, print and social media are rife with political advertisements paid for by opposition parties and the government.
However, according to President of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA), K Juman-Yassin, none of those ads include a clear cut plan for the local sportsmen and women who continue to face their biggest hurdle; adequate funding.
Juman-Yassin’s observation and other remarks were made during the GOA’s annual Appreciation and Award Ceremony at the Georgetown Club on Saturday evening.
At the gala event, the GOA’s president acknowledged the government for commissioning the long awaited National Track and Field Centre at Leonora on Friday, but in the same breath asked for the long awaited national sports policy.
“We need to know of their sports policy. What is in it for the athletes, how are they going to make full time coaches, look after full time athletes? I wish to hear this,” Yassin emphasized.
Besides thanking the special invitees and awardees for attending the event, Yassin also implored on the AAG to utilize the synthetic track as soon as possible to enable local athletes to potentially qualify for the Pan Am Games and other international events.
Member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Sir Austin Sealey who delivered the feature address reiterated the need for government relations with Olympic Committees.
“We need co-operation to exist with the Olympic Committee and the government. There has to be unity for sports to move forward” said the former president of the Barbados National Olympic Committee.
Sealey then urged the athletes to take full advantage of the track and field facility while advising the government of Guyana to “make your facilities multi-purpose or else they will become white elephants.”
The former banker and veteran sports administrator then advised members of sports associations to “Make sure that the conditions for sport are respected, make sure that athletes get the time off to represent the country without penalty.”
Sealey who is the creator of the Run Barbados event and the ‘Father of the CARIFTA Games’, pointed out that the annual event is the breathing ground of the Caribbean Olympic athletes since the turn of the century. He made mention of Guyana’s absence at the Games this year due to a myriad of unfortunate events but told the AAG, “Don’t let it deter you.”
During Saturday’s ceremony, presentations were made to Emmerson Campbell (Sports Journalist of the Year) and persons who contributed to the Development of the Sport.
They included Gokarn Ramdhani (badminton), Gordon Davis (squash), Stephanie Fraser (swimming), Michael Baptiste (table tennis), Howard Bovell (weightlifting) and Ian McDonald (IOC Trophy 2014-Sport and Art)
Floral presentations were also made to Roxanne George-Wiltshire, Sharon Lewis, Mrs. McDonald (wife of Ian Mc Donald), Mrs. Chan-A-Sue (wife of Paul Chan-A-Sue, Bernadette Juman-Yassin and Bernice Irving.
Also at the event, Deon Nurse was named the GOA’s Council Member of the Year and Secretary General of the GOA while Hector Edwards gave an overview of the association’s activities for 2014.
The GOA hosts the event yearly to show appreciation to individuals and agencies from whom the association had received assistance during the previous year and to receive awards
