While delivering one of the keynote speeches at the historic resuscitation of the Inter Guiana Games (IGG) following a five-year hiatus, Director of Sport, Steve Ninvalle, disclosed that plans are being conceptualised for the inaugural staging of the Border Games between Nickerie District and Corentyne
Addressing the gathering of dignitaries, officials and athletes, which also included Prime Minister Mark Phillips, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson jnr., and Suriname’s Minister of Regional Development and Sports, Garcia Emmanuel, at the National Stadium, Providence, Ninvalle revealed that the Border Games initiative, which is in its formative stage of discussion, is a direct consequence of the Inter-Guiana Games.
“It would be remiss of me if I don’t inform you that as a byproduct of our discussions, we have already started speaking with Suriname about a Border Games which will see the Corentyne having competitions with Nickerie and I think this is a wonderful gesture and it says that we are pushing in the right direction,” said Ninvalle.
According to the top sports official, the IGG has served from its inception, as a pivotal avenue and platform to forge lasting fellowships between the nations who share a common heritage.
“It is important that we understand that in order to build more camaraderie and friendship with each country, we have this element of sport which is extremely important,” he expounded.
Ninvalle revealed that the competitions’ meticulous preparation was initiated following the urging by Ramson Jnr., adding that the discourse on the involvement of French Guiana, which was also spurred by the aforesaid official, was necessary to the spirit of the One Guyana platform.
He explained, “On the 28th of February this year, I would have reached out to my counterpart in Suriname and my reaching out was on the urging of my Minister who thought that it was enough time that the preparation for the 2022 Inter-Guiana Games should have started. We would have several discussions via telephone and the time was right for me to head across to Suriname for us to have much more detailed discussions. With that, and the urging of my Honourable Minister, we thought it fit to go to French Guiana because of the fact that it would not have been in the One Guyana spirit for us to have a Guiana Games without French Guiana. With that we travelled to French Guiana and French Guiana came on board in a holistic way, and from that, this is what we have tonight.”
The 2022 edition of the IGG features the largest contingent of athletes and officials as well as sporting disciplines; an immutable fact that Ninvalle declared is indicative of the current trajectory of sports on the local frontier, as the event is poised to feature an expansion of disciplines in future iterations.
Ninvalle elucidated. “The magnitude of the 2022 Inter-Guiana Games is a microcosm of where we are going with sports in Guyana. My Minister would say we are thinking big picture, we now have the largest number of athletes here ever, we now have the largest number of disciplines and this is not where we will stop because of the fact that we have already started talking about bringing more disciplines into the Inter-Guiana Games. Guyana has 12 core sports, we only have eight being represented in Inter-Guiana Games so hopefully, when we sit and start discussions about the next Inter-Guiana Games, we will be able to bring much more sports disciplines to it,” he declared.
