The Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) would like us to believe that the fiasco with the selection of Jamila Sanmoogan ahead of Aleka Persaud for the Upcoming Tokyo Olympics should be laid squarely at the feet of FINA, the world governing body.
According to GASA it is FINA which made the selection of the two Universality spots giving them to Andrew Fowler and Jamila Sanmoogan, who, this newspaper understands, were the highest ranked swimmers at the time.
This begs the question, why, if the selections were made in April as the release stated, (obviously giving the swimmers time to prepare for the biggest games of their lives) did FINA, write GASA indicating to them that they should select their highest ranked swimmer, approximately just one month before the games.
It does not make sense.
Can GASA or FINA for that matter state what was the cut-off date for the selection of the Universality spot?
If FINA is now suggesting, as the reports indicate, that another swimmer, Aleka Persaud and not Sanmoogan should be selected for the Olympic Games that would be a travesty.
Simply put FINA cannot give a Universality spot to one athlete and then withdraw the privilege a few months later.
What about GASA’s role in all of this?
Did GASA in any way influence FINA with the selection of Sanmoogan and Fowler or was the decision’s wholly and solely FINA’s?
Was GASA aware that there was still time for the swimmers to try and make the Olympic qualifying times or try to get as close as possible in order to improve their chances of landing a wild card spot as now seems to be the case?
If one were to look at athletics, Guyana’s athletes had until last weekend to make the qualifying times for their respective events and only recently were table tennis player Chelsea Edghill and boxer Keevin Allicock made aware of their wild card selections. In Archery, Devin Persaud was last weekend trying to secure his ticket to Tokyo.
Balance this with FINA’s decision in April to give the local swimmers their wild card spots.
In local sports the issue of selection of athletes for teams or individual sports is a contentious one and oftentimes the best persons are not selected.
There is a lack of fairness and transparency in the selection process which results in the fact that a lot of athletes are given raw deals.
This is an area that should be looked into.
There needs to be more rigorous selection process which should be made clear to all the athletes vying for selection which should result in an improved quality of representation and ultimately better results.
