Dear Editor,
Did Guyana ever fully recover from the boycotting of the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games by former president LFS Burnham? As a reminder, Guyana’s Gilkes was slated to win gold, and for many, that boycott killed sports in Guyana (mainly track.) I have spoken to many people over the years and they all agreed.
Yes, we have stepped on the road to recovery, but there is nothing much to talk about. Can we get a total transformation? Yes, but we have to collectively be sheltered under one roof and first establish the objective of the mission and if we can afford $5 billion for sports in the 2017 budget.
A section of the media has started this new drama of blaming the current President K A Juman-Yassin (Guyana Olympic Association) for Guyana’s failure at the just concluded 2016 Rio Olympic Games, which to my mind is utter rubbish. Guyana is a democratic country and it’s everyone’s right to challenge Mr Yassin for the chairmanship of the GOA and I welcome such a challenge, but they should not try any cheap shot because it will never work.
Mr Rawle Welch has written that attorneys Roysdale Forde, Nigel Hughes, and Vidushi Persaud, and businessman David Fernandes are his choices as candidates for the GOA presidency, which I totally respect. Can he say with certainty if they ever visited and supported any track meet, and if so, which ones?
I expect every media house to have the same interest in every sports fraternity election in Guyana and not sit out GOA’s elections. All media houses should make it their duty to be present during the 2016 GOA’s elections.
Yours faithfully,
T Pemberton
