“We are all set and ready to go” were the words of president of the Athletic Association of Guyana (AAG), Aubrey Hutson yesterday regarding the three-day National Senior Championships which gets off to a fast start tomorrow at the National Track and Field Centre.
During a media update at the headquarters of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) at Liliendaal, Hutson also stated that some of the nation’s premier athletes will be competing for potential Olympic berths, medals and cash incentives.
“There will be medals and prize money for the top three finishers in every event and I know for sure that most of our athletes from outside of Guyana are competing at our National Championships. This event is packed,” Hutson highlighted.
The AAG head then disclosed that “Aliya and Jasmine Abrams are here, Jeremy Bascom is here, Arinze Chance is here and also a triple jumper from Suriname.”
Aliya, a 400m runner has already qualified for her second Olympics and the rest of the athletes will be using the flagship event of the association to achieve qualifying standards at the event which is a qualifier for the Games this summer in Tokyo, Japan.
Hutson further mentioned that the meet will be divided into two sessions tomorrow and Saturday with one session on Sunday afternoon to accommodate the Annual General Meeting and Election of Office bearers earlier in the day.
The first session will be headlined by the heats of the blue riband 100m races.
“Friday afternoon we start at 5pm then we have two sessions on Saturday starting in the morning at 10 and the one in the afternoon starting at 1 O’ clock. Sunday we will start at 1pm, just one session in the afternoon because in the morning, we will be hosting our Annual General Meeting,” Hutson concluded.
Meanwhile, the AAG CARIFTA Games Local Organising Committee (LOC) member, Leeron Brummel, was in attendance and shared that the AAG has received permission from the National COVID-19 Task Force to host the spectator-free meet. “Just the athletes, officials, coaches will be at the venue,” Brummel shared.
He added “We are still determining whether we will stream the event live but in terms of the media, we are attempting to have high class photos and results readily available at the event or remotely, almost immediately.”
Guyana is set to host the 50th edition of the CARIFTA Games in 2023 and Brummel revealed that the LOC will be looking at the systems put in place for the National Senior Championships over the three days to determine what works and what will need tweaking to ensure that the prestigious regional junior athletics showpiece is successful.
