By Charwayne Walker
They say a prophet is never honoured in his own country and sometimes an athlete is not valued unless he/she competes for another country.
This seems to be the case with Guyanese Jennifer Inniss.
Jennifer Inniss who represented the country of her birth Guyana at the 1979 and 1983 Pan American Games never won a medal at those games.
However, Inniss was on the podium at the 1987 Pan American Games held in Indianapolis, United States of America.
On that occasion she was decked out in the colors of the United States of America.
The wonder girl from the land of the majestic Kaieteur Falls was second to her adopted compatriot Jackie Joyner-Kersee in the long jump final.
Kersee won gold with a leap of 7.45 meters, Inniss won silver with a jump of 6.85 meters and Cuba’s Eloina Echevarria took the bronze with a leap of 6.42 meters.
Jennifer Innis also represented her adopted country at the 1987 World Championships in the long jump, placing seventh.
At the 1989 World Indoor Championships she placed eighth in the long jump and, at the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle, her final international event, she placed fifth in the long jump.
She was the model for the female bronze statue outside the Los Angeles Coliseum created by sculpture Robert Graham for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games.
Inniss is more than an inspiration and model for emulation to this year’s athletes representing the land of the Majestic Kaieteur Falls at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago Chile since she always believed that failure was never a cause for depression but rather an incentive for performance.
This year’s Pan American Games will commence in Santiago, Chile from 20th October to 5th November.
Since the inaugural event in 1955 the only Guyanese to capture a gold medal in athletics is James Wren Gilkes and understandably, he was the poster boy for athletics in Guyana during his career.
.Gilkes won the 200m final at the 1975 Pan American Games held in Mexico City.
He followed up that performance by capturing silver in the 200 metres at the 1979 Games held in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The other silver medalist from the Land of Many Waters is June Marcia Griffith who was controversially denied a gold at the 1979 Games in the 400 meters final.
Marian Burnett won silver at the 2003 Games in the 800 metres and the other Guyanese Pan American Games athletic medalist are Tony Steth and Aliann Pompey.
Steth won bronze in the 800 meters finals at the 1959 Games held in Chicago, USA and is the first Guyanese to medal in athletics at the Pan American Games.
Pompey won bronze in the 400 metre final at the 2003 games.
