The XX11 Commonwealth Games staged in Birmingham, England came and went as fast as some of the times the record breaking athletes laid on the track, velodrome, and in the pool.
And while Guyana’s 32 representatives at the quadrennial event failed to climb the podium steps or achieve a medal, there were historic and commendable performances among the athletes.
The standout performance for the sportsmen and women of the 592 during the July 28 to August 8 event was undoubtedly the men’s 4x100m relay team narrowly missing the podium in the blistering final at Alexander Stadium.
Guyana’s quartet of Akeem Stewart, Emanuel Archibald, Arinze Chance and Noelex Holder placed fourth in the final, a historic feat in itself as no other local foursome ever progressed that far since the Games’ inception in 1930.
The relay race is one of the most adrenaline-pumping sights in all of athletics, it is viewed as the ultimate example of teamwork and coordination.
It is the most technical of sprint races and for the quartet to advance that far after just practicing for three days is a praiseworthy feat.
Holder, the youngest speedster on the team who ran a scorching anchor leg to get the team into the finals, stated that the quartet exceeded expectations by clinching a finals berth and vying for a medal but opined,
“We need more high level competitions like these to get better.”
Another feat worthy of praise was the advancement of tennis star, Natalie Cummings, to the women’s singles and doubles (with Chelsea Edghill) Round-of-16. No other paddler from Guyana had advanced that far since tennis was introduced to the Games in 2022 but Cummings broke that mould.
In a seven-game, marathon thriller with Ruqayyah Kinoo of Mauritius, six days ago, Cummings served, looped and slammed her way into the final 16.
The 33 year-old unfortunately lost her next match a day later to Welsh prodigy, Anna Hursey.
It would be remiss of me not to mention the performance of the youngest local athlete at the Games, Aleka Persaud. The 16-year-old won heat one in the women’s 100 metres butterfly, clocking 1:07.24s which is a new national record. The Tokyo 2020 Olympian competing at her first Commonwealth Games, erased her previous record of 1:08.53 seconds which she had set at the 2019 CARIFTA Games.
Singapore’s tennis icon, Feng Tianwei was adjudged the most outstanding athlete of the Games after 11 days of jam-packed sporting action and she received the coveted David Dixon award.
Tianwei earned three gold medals at Birmingham 2022 where she helped Singapore complete a clean sweep in the women’s team, singles, and doubles events.
In total, 97 Games records and four world records were broken while 877 medals were awarded during the multisport event second only to the Olympics.
