Following an engagement between the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport recently, swimmers could return to action as early as this week.
This is according to GASA president, Dwayne Scott.
After the meeting, which involved Minister of Sport, Charles Ramson Jr., Scott told Stabroek Sport of the latest developments.
“So we had an engagement with the minister on the 19 [January]. At this meeting, we exchanged details on what his plans are for sports in Guyana and what our desires are for swimming.
“At this meeting we discussed working to have our Olympic athletes get back into training. Not only our Olympic athletes, but all our athletes who intend to take part in activities this year.”
Due to the circumstances, Scott said that the minister indicated that he will work and provide a solution.
“He promised that by the end of the week, we should have access to the pool for the athletes to train.
“He took responsibility of working it out with the task force and the Ministry of Health and he asked us to provide him with a list of details and actions we would take to protect the athletes. That information would have been provided to him. He will provide us with a letter of approval with the names of the athletes that would be given permission to use the facility and that would be for the Aquatic Centre.”
Scott also stated that Ramson Jr., has expressed willingness to financially assist the Olympic athletes to take them through their developmental phase.
As a result, the body will need to put together a budget.
The GASA boss made it clear that it will not be a duplication of the financial assistance from the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) but a supplemental budget.
“The minister is working on some improvements at both the Aquatic Centre [and] Colgrain and is working on allowing us access again to Castallani House.
“Colgrain will be up and running by the end of the month. He subsequently wants us to use Colgrain for our clinic programme, which is for our young swimmers’ development and he indicated that maybe by the end of March-April, we should be able to access Castallani House. Both facilities will undergo some level of rehabilitation.”
Scott explained that at the meeting, plans were discussed to have swimming expanded from within the confines of Region Four and possibly to Region Three, Six and Ten.
“We did discuss the possibility of expanding swimming activities outside of Georgetown or Region Four boundary. “We looked at the possibility of Region 3. We’ve discussed the possibility of revisiting the facility at the Uitvlugt Estate. We’ve discussed the Linden facility and we’ve discussed the Berbice facility,” he stated.
In relation to Linden, Scott stated, “We are supposed to work on a dedicated time slot for the Linden athletes to use the facility. This has to go through NICIL with the minister taking the lead on that.”
Scott disclosed that there is a plan to have a new pool for competitive swimming only developed and expressed the body’s gratitude for the developments made in order to have swimming return to the pool and develop as a sport.
