AFTER a lacklustre response to a call for proposals for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) is now calling on its 23 affiliated sporting associations and federations to submit another proposal – this time one to be presented to the Pan American Sports Association (PASO) next week.
GOA president K.A. Juman-Yassin is expected to be in Miami, USA next week, and according to him the associations have been asked to submit proposals. The deadline for the PASO proposals is tomorrow, June 21.
“I’ve asked all the major sports to give us their plans and then we will compile it … because I have to go up to Miami to present our proposals to PASO to see what they would be able to give us.
“We can’t get everything but I’m waiting to see what they (Associations) submit, so we can move forward, and when we put it to PASO to see what we can get.” Yassin admitted that only “four or five” of the associations submitted the previously-asked for ‘Tokyo 2020’ proposals for their athletes, which the GOA had requested since January.
Proposals still haven’t been submitted by most of the associations, including major associations like athletics, whose president Aubrey Hutson admitted that the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) had not submitted. However, Yassin was tight-lipped on naming any of the tardy associations.
Aside from athletics the other 22 sporting fraternities under the GOA are badminton, baseball, basketball, bodybuilding, boxing, canoeing, cycling, fencing, football, hockey, judo, karate, netball, rifle-shooting, rugby, weightlifting, table tennis, taekwondo, lawn tennis, swimming, squash and volleyball.
Badminton, judo and boxing have all confirmed that they were among those fraternities that submitted their Tokyo proposals. The Tokyo 2020 proposal was expected to include plans of what each respective discipline wished to see happen to help prepare their athletes, from now, in the hope of having them qualify for the 2020 Olympics.
However, the problem wasn’t just with the errant non-submitting associations.
“A lot of the plans were not very good in detail,” Yassin said. He however is more optimistic about the PASO proposals.
With the PASO proposal, he hopes for better submissions, as it asked specific questions and addressed specific areas. The PASO proposals are for support in the lead-up to the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.
This PASO proposal is expected to work in tandem with the Tokyo proposal, with Pan Am being just one year before the Olympics, and PASO being a subsidiary of the governing International Olympic Committee (IOC).
“All of this will work in conjunction to that (the Tokyo 2020 plan) because this will go towards the Pan American Games in 2019 and then the following year is the (Tokyo) 2020,” Yassin explained.
However, as it pertains to the Tokyo 2020 plan, up to late last month when contacted several of the associations appeared to have no knowledge of the request for the proposals.
“Well, too bad for them. It’s a poor excuse,” Yassin remarked.
“I’ve been sending the information to them. The office would have sent the information to them. Mr (Hector) Edwards would have sent the things to all the associations. And when we have council meetings every month we tell them, look we haven’t received it; please send in.”
Yassin, however, admitted that not all of the associations have been up to date in attending the council meetings, which are held on the last Thursday of every month. That responsibility falls on the associations.
Many of the associations themselves also admitted that their lack of attendance may have played a role.
President of the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) Ivan Persaud knew nothing of the plan last month. However he says he has since had an arrangement with the GOA to submit their proposal after they hold their Goodwill Swim Meet in August. Hockey and tennis, and rugby were also not aware.
Bodybuilding president Coel Marks, noted that a recent change of executive left that fraternity in a bad position. Last month was the first GOA council meeting that the new executive attended.
“We took over in February. The transition did not happen smoothly. So we now had to piece together a lot of information. So things are coming in bits and pieces, and now filling in the gaps. So I’m aware of it now and I will be sending a representative on the way forward.”