Should this editorial come across as a pat on the back for the Stabroek News’ Sports Journalist Emmerson Campbell arising out of his coverage of the recently concluded Commonwealth Games then we can only hope that our readers believe that the reportage gave ample reason for a short, sharp blast on our trumpet.
Guyana, arguably not altogether unexpectedly, failed to ‘medal’ in Birmingham, a circumstance which, through no fault of Mr. Campbell, denied him the opportunity of delivering a historic piece of reportage on a meaningful local accomplishment in the international sports arena. If this was not Mr. Campbell’s fault it, nonetheless, provides a sobering reminder that Guyana’s now accustomed failure to ‘shine’ on the global athletics stage is, for the most part, a function of a protracted, indeed abysmal official failure to properly position the country to do so.
What, as a country, Guyana has gotten out of international sport (particularly athletics) over the years, is a function of what we have invested in the discipline. The same, one might add, applies to our sister Caribbean country, Jamaica. So that Mr. Campbell and whomsoever might, in the future, access the privilege of covering international sports events, will continue to have little (by way of medals) to write home about until there is a national sports policy that embraces a decidedly more enlightened view of what it takes to win.
Remaining blissfully unmindful of the overarching role that sport plays in nation-building while pursuing a ‘sports policy’ that is limited largely to rendering selective recreational spaces, handing out assorted sports clothing and equipment and staging selected sports tournaments that do little to enhance performance levels in the particular discipline will not take us any further forward than we are at this time. We have to create a ‘curriculum’ that tutors us in what it takes to win. There are examples right here in the region from which we can learn.
This, mind you, does not gainsay the fact that the privilege of being part of the Commonwealth Games goes beyond medalling. Participation therein reflects countries’ acknowledgement of common historical experiences, notwithstanding, in the particular instance of the Commonwealth, occasional outbursts of vigorous discourse over the contemporary relevance of the institution.
While, of course, we thoroughly regret that Mr. Campbell was unable to claim the privilege of being the first reporter to bring us news of a Guyana medal at the Games, we insist, nonetheless, that his coverage of the Games altogether justifies the ‘trouble’ it took to get him to Birmingham.
Now for the issue of Mr. Campbell’s substantive coverage of the Games. First, it has to be said that our local sports journalists are rarely afforded the opportunity to provide in-person coverage of international sport so that Mr. Campbell’s presence in Birmingham represented, for us, one of those rare happenings.
That we were able to benefit from coverage of a major international sports event through on-site reportage from a local journalist was, in itself, something to crow about, never mind the fact that what would have been less than exalted expectations of Guyana ‘shining’ in Birmingham proved to be well-founded. We should, however, temper whatever disappointment may have arisen from us securing zero medals of any kind with a gentle reminder that The Commonwealth Games brings together performers who have ‘shone brightly’ on much bigger stages and that those performers, some of whom, we have already been reminded, hail from quite a few of our sister CARICOM countries, which, of course, raises the time-worn question (which has been repeatedly answered) as to what is it that they do that we don’t.
In sum, the privilege of reporting on a Guyana medal at the Games now having eluded him, he is going to have to seek out some other accomplishment with which to adorn his memoires. Decidedly, though, his presence in Birmingham was far from a waste of time. His reportage on the Commonwealth Games as an international spectacle provided us with more than the fanfare that attended the event. It conveyed the ‘feel’ of the energy and effort that caused some of our local ‘Ambassadors’ in Birmingham to perform, perhaps, beyond expectations, providing a measure of hope that while our time has not yet come, (and this, one cannot repeat too frequently, is largely a function of an unceasing adherence to an unenlightened official disposition to raising standards across the board) the fortunes of many of our participants in the 2022 Commonwealth Games suggest that their talents and their hunger for success have to be attended by an official disposition to turning out champions that continues to be missing from official sports policy.
Mr. Campbell could hardly have been faulted had he simply dwelt on the under-accomplishment of Team Guyana in Birmingham. This he declined to do, opting instead to point to the incremental improvements in individual performances and their portents for ‘next time’ around. Indeed, it is largely on his account that the collective effort of Team Guyana in Birmingham is more than deserving of a generous measure of national appreciation.
Arguably an equally poignant, even if, perhaps unintended aspect of the coverage of the Commonwealth Games was a message which, hopefully, Mr.Campbell’s reportage would have sent to the authorities, at the level of government and elsewhere, here in Guyana and across the board (including the various Associations, Federations and assorted umbrella bodies,) that excellence in competition cannot be realized except it is derived from an enlightened body of conceptual thinking that understands the nexus between sport and nation-building. If we are to compete favourably with the best of the best we need to set aside grand but ultimately no more than eye-catching (invariably political) gestures and begin to focus unerringly on what will get us ‘amongst the medals.’ We must set aside the prevailing sports ‘policy’ that so often appears to begin and end with grand gestures that take us nowhere..
Part of the significance of Mr. Campbell’s recent reportage on the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham is that it served to remind us of much of what it takes to win that continues to elude us. To try to understand this is to begin to fashion the building blocks for going forward.
