’Internal issues’ within the Athletic Association of Guyana (AAG) were the determining factors which ultimately disqualified the athletes from competing at the South American Games which gets underway on October 1 in Paraguay.
This is according to Aubrey Hutson, President of the AAG who admitted yesterday that the association committed a huge false start by not submitting its long list in a timely manner to the Guyana Olympic Association in order for his athletes to compete at the quadrennial Games.
Hutson made the remarks following the launch of the 20th edition of the South American 10K at the National Resource Centre.
The AAG’s head stated that “The association blundered and we must take blame for the late submission of the list and we must ensure that this doesn’t happen again.”
Hutson contended that the ‘blunder’ was due to person/s on the executive not ‘pulling their weight’.
The AAG only submitted a 13-member list to the GOA two weeks ago, a task which was to be completed in April hence leaving the athletes grounded in Guyana after according to Hutson he never received word back from the GOA after he made a successful 11th hour plea at the South American Congress to have the athletes compete.
“I attended the South American Athletics (Atletismo Sudamericano) congress in Sao Paulo Brazil on September 12’, 2022 and requested from Paraguayan Athletics President, the opportunity for athletics to be accepted into the Games. He immediately called the authorities in Paraguay and got a favourable
response. He then told me to get in touch with the GOA in order to submit the list of athletes and it will be accepted.
Hutson added, “An email was sent to the GOA on the morning of September 13’ with the required information for the athletics team entry for the Games.
To date, I have no official response from the GOA. I was expecting an email or even a phone call from the Acting General Secretary Deon Nurse or even the Office Administrator Ms. Nalini Mckoy saying “yes” or “no” to our listing.”
Hutson then stated that the GOA could be have been more accommodating towards the athletes who were looking forward to competing at the Games.
“I have requested in the past, and I will continue to implore that the GOA should be more accommodating and offer more assistance than to be punitive to member federations. The AAG is really trying to do better and instead of assisting us, they chose to deny us the opportunity when they know they could have helped.
“We have our internal issues which we are addressing but we know in the new season, the athletes will have a stronger administration,” he concluded.
With track and field a no show at the games, Guyana will be represented in the disciplines of badminton, boxing, squash and table tennis. (Emmerson Campbell)
