Andrea Foster –an aspiring Olympian
Andrea Foster
Andrea Foster

 

THIS week’s Noble House Seafoods’ Personality-of-the-Week is 19-year-old Andrea Foster, a national athlete, who has represented Guyana numerous times both regionally and internationally, and has acquired several medals under her belt.Andrea is a multiple CARIFTA Games bronze medallist and gold medallist at the Hampton International Games, while she was also once selected to represent the prestigious World Championships.

An aspiring Olympian, Andrea is currently a student of the Essex County College, thanks to her athletic ability. Andrea was offered a sports scholarship to study for an Associate Degree in General Science at the college after her continuous outstanding performances.

Andrea is a middle distance athlete, specialising in the 800m and 1500m distances, though she never shies away from the challenge of also contesting in the 3 000m and 10km distances in events.foster

She describes athletics as “her life”. Though she now confidently speaks of her dreams of representing Guyana at the Olympics, Andrea was not always enthused at the idea of being an athlete. As the daughter of former national sprinter, and current bodybuilder Alisha Fortune, many thought Andrea would have a natural inclination for sport, but she actually did not.

It was not until she was continually prodded by her teachers in high school for having an athletic mom and not being an athlete that Andrea finally gave in. And so it was in 2011, after dabbling in debating as an extracurricular activity, she decided to also do athletics.
“It was my teachers that got me to run. They said my mom can’t be an athlete and I’m not,” she recalled

So goes the tale of another athlete, who got involved in sports through influence at school. Representing her school Bladen Hall Multilateral, Andrea advanced through the different levels of the National Schools Championships, or Nationals as we’ll call it, in 2011 and continued every successive year.

In 2012, she had her first chance to represent Guyana regionally at the CARIFTA Games, and on her first time out she won a bronze medal for her efforts. Then in 2013 she was again on a national team among those who represented Guyana at the Tri-nation Inter-Guiana Games.

Last year, her local performances were enough to see her selected to represent Guyana at the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) World Championships in Beijing, China.

For this year, she has won another two bronze medals at CARIFTA Games in her 800m and 1500m events. She later won gold in both these events at the Hampton International Games. She also continued her dominance at the local level.

But then she departed Guyana in August for the USA, where she now represents Essex and continues her training and hopes of perhaps representing the Golden Arrowhead at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

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