Manager of the Guyana team to the 2023 Goodwill Swimming Championships scheduled for Jamaica from tomorrow to August 20, Atanica Vieira, said yesterday that she was unsure of the team’s participation in the wake of recent developments.
According to Vieira, the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) entered a team of 14 swimmers to represent the country at the 27th Goodwill Swimming Championships.
However, Vieira said that the issue of funding arose and, as GASA has stated that it has no money, she is unsure of the team’s participation.
but Guyana’s participation is uncertain ahead of tomorrow’s commencement of the games
“At this stage, I am unaware if GASA has made a decision or has communicated anything further to the Aquatic Sports Association of Jamaica, regarding Guyana’s participation in the 27th Edition of the Goodwill Swimming Championship, August 18-20, 2023, Jamaica,” she stated in correspondence sent to Stabroek Sports.
“At this late stage, a few days before the 2023 Goodwill Swimming Championship commences in Jamaica, it is very disheartening to learn that GASA has no money to even pay for a Coach to travel with a reduced team of swimmers,” Vieira added.
According to Vieira, the swimmers have been training very hard and are eager to represent their country at the regional developmental meet.
“Attending this meet is all the more important since Guyana last participated, at this level, at the 25th edition of the Goodwill Swimming Championship in 2019, where the team placed fourth out of nine countries, earning 43 medals (six gold, five silver and 12 bronze medals in individual categories and eight gold, four silver and eight bronze medals in the relay categories) in the process,” she explained.
“Even though GASA entered a team to participate in the Goodwill Swimming Championship in 2022, the first after the Covid-19 pandemic ended, they failed to send the team to represent Guyana. At that time GASA, under this current President, promised solemnly to not let such a situation occur again,” Vieira charged.
“Several weeks ago, the President and Vice President, Administration of GASA, met with the parents of the selected swimmers at the National Aquatic Centre. The President of GASA promised that he will seek to utilise a portion of the Olympic Aquatic Support Programme (OASP) funds, which World Aquatics pledged to GASA, for swimmer development from grassroots to elite levels. Even though he said, several weeks ago, that he will seek to have an emergency meeting of GASA to discuss the use of a portion of the OASP funds, he confessed that he has not presented a proposal to the GASA Council as yet, because he had no figures. The figures he speaks about have been shared several times with him,” Vieira stated.
“He also promised that GASA would seek additional funding from the Government of Guyana, the Guyana Olympic Association and the private sector. Parents are aware also and have accepted that they needed to make a contribution to their children participating in the Goodwill Swimming Championship.
“The President of GASA has recently informed us that he has received no funding from anyone and that GASA has no money either to assist the Goodwill Team. Given the situation with lack of funding, several parents committed to fully funding their children’s participation. This meant that most of the team had to withdraw due to lack of funding,” said Vieira.
“The Guyana Amateur Swimming Association seems unconcerned that Guyana, as a founding member
of the Goodwill Swimming Championships, missed the championships in 2022, for no good reason; that its desire to host the Goodwill Swimming Championship in 2025 will suffer a huge setback if no proposal is presented to the Congress of the Goodwill Swimming Championship in Jamaica on August 17, 2023; that the young swimmers have been training very hard for several months with the expectation of participating in this swimming championship; that there are several medal contenders in the team and that this seeming callous treatment of young swimmers may have a negative impact on their (and other young swimmers) further engagement in this vital core sport/discipline, said Vieira adding that it seems that there is no goodwill for Guyana’s 2023 Goodwill Swimming Championship Team.
Efforts to contact the president of the GASA Dwayne Scott yesterday proved futile as calls to his cell phone went unanswered.
In January this year, Scott was reelected president of the association and was quoted in another section of the press as saying..“The goal this year is to strengthen our relationship with the Regional Body from an administrative side, strengthen our local relationship and partnerships and then we try to make sure that our athletes can show better performances in regional and international outings.
“One of the challenges we had last year, of course, had to be with our performance at the CARIFTA Games, our performance at the South American Games, whilst they were decent outings for us, we came back empty-handed. So we’re driving a programme this year to ensure that we can bring back something tangible to Guyana from at least the CARIFTA Games and also the Goodwill, that happens later down in the year.”
