The Ministry of Public through its Department of Adolescent Health, staged the second annual Inter-Schools Fitness Challenge recently at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, Homestretch Avenue.
The event, which was also supported by the Pan American Health Organization, the Guyana Amateur Weight Lifting Association (GAWLA) and Fusion Gym, featured students from seven administrative regions.
Although the primary aim of the event was to promote health via fitness amongst students, the tourney’s focus, which consisted of several physical activities, was to determine the fittest school in the country. The inaugural tournament was staged in November 2016.
Seon Erskine, Secretary of the GAWLA, said, “Today, children and young adults are not as active as they were before, a lot of them are too involved with the school work, lessons, internet and the phones that they do not really have the time or even interest to do physical activity and the data shows that these are contributors to the chronic health issues that are growing here.”
According to Erskine, “Physical education is on the schools’ timetable but not much focus is placed on it so in many cases other classes take up that spot. We want to have this no longer be the case, for physical activity to become stressed in the school for students.”
He r thanked the sponsors for their contribution in making the event possible, adding that he was happy that other institutions are interested in the promotion of health and fitness amongst the youths.
Throughout the duration of the competition, officials conducted health checks on the respective participants such as the Body Mass Index (BMI).
