Table tennis star, Chelsea Edghill, and swimmer, Andrew Fowler, will be bestowed the honours of being Guyana’s Flag Bearers during the Olympic Games opening ceremony today in Tokyo, Japan.
This is according to chef de mission, Garfield Wiltshire, who described the mood in the camp as “good”, ahead of today’s grand opening spectacle. “There will be two flag bearers for the first time,” he informed, adding that the two persons selected were Fowler and Edghill.
National Olympic Committees around the globe were tasked with selecting a male and a female to be their flag bearers. This comes as part of a rule change made by the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) last March.
Tokyo 2020 will be the first gender-balanced Olympic Games in history with a 49-per cent women’s participation.
Guyana representatives at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad include Edghill, Fowler, track and field athletes, Emanuel Archibald (100m), Jasmine (100m) and Aaliyah Abrams (400m), Keevin Allicock (boxing) and swimmer, Aleka Persaud (50m freestyle).
Meanwhile, the first local representative to spring into action during the July 23 to August 8 Games will be Allicock. The 22-year-old standout featherweight begins his march to the podium tomorrow when he matches gloves with nemesis, Alexy De La Cruz of the Dominican Republic.
