Businessman Samuel Barakat was on Thursday evening re-elected as President of the Guyana Tennis Association (GTA) at the body’s Annual General meeting and election of office bearers at the National Racquet Centre.
Barakat, of the Le Ressouvenir Tennis Club, is one of the association’s longest-serving members and was re-elected unchallenged.
Following the elections, Barakat spoke to Stabroek Sport about his intentions to advance the development of the sports by having heightened interactions at the club level.
“Our immediate focus is to develop the clubs,” Barakat said.
“We need to make our clubs stronger, we need to make our clubs more self-sufficient in terms of finance, we need to make our clubs more self-sufficient in terms of facilities because we would like to have more coaches at the club level to facilitate junior development,” he declared.
He also informed of plans to work closer with the government of the day.
“Our next focus is to try and work with the government because the government facilities we have are at the Racquet Centre and the National Park… these two facilities are very vibrant, you have hundreds of kids come here every single day and we would really like the Government, the [National] Sports Commission and the Ministry to do whatever it takes to make these facilities acceptable. Right now there are not. Those are our priorities; develop the clubs and improve the facilities,” he said.
Meanwhile, also returning on the executive are Cristy Campbell and Nigel Niles in the capacity as first and second vice president, respectively.
Campbell was unopposed while Niles, who previously served as a committee member, defeated Delon Fraser nine votes to zero for the post of second vice president.
Treasures Tina Ram was returned unopposed while the secretarial duties will be carried out by Shinessa Thompson, who is one of the new faces installed on the executive. She was unopposed for that post.
The elections also saw the installation of four committee members namely; Andre Lopes, Alvin Doris, Annabelle Carter – Sharma and Romela Forde.
