… AAG still cash-strapped after hosting Junior edition

SPRINTERS Winston George, Owen Adonis, and hurdler Jenea McCammon will be Guyana’s representatives at this year’s South American Senior Championships, after they volunteered to pay their own way to the June 23-25 event which will be held in Paraguay.
Though the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), in an earlier interview with Chronicle Sport, had said that the body hoped to select and send a team of around six persons; AAG president Aubrey Hutson yesterday made an outright disclosure that at this point the body could not even afford to send a single athlete.

“We don’t have money!” Hutson declared.
“We don’t even have money to clear our bills for the last (South American Junior) Championships, so I wasn’t going to incur an additional debt and financial burden on the future of athletics in Guyana. Those athletes would have expressed an interest in going, and they were willing to supplement their passage. We got to deal with the reality of the situation.”

Guyana had only just earlier this month wrapped up hosting the South American Junior Championships after agreeing to put on the event just a few months prior when Bolivia, the original hosts, said they could no longer do it. The event had received some amount of sponsorship, but it left much to be desired.
Hence, Hutson said, when the selection committee met on Monday night to make a final say on the team, it boiled down to simply allowing those athletes who could pay for their tickets to go.

“We explained clearly that we could not afford to send a team. Those are the people who would have submitted and bought their tickets, so they’re off,” he said.
The average price for the ticket from Guyana to Paraguay was approximately US$1000. The athletes were only required to pay for the airfare while everything else is taken care of by the host nation.

Adonis departed Guyana yesterday, while George and McCammon would both be travelling from the USA, in high spirits despite the situation.
George will be in the men’s 200m and 400m, Adonis will also be in the 200m, as well as the 100m. McCammon will be in the women’s 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles.
“I’m honoured to be able to represent Guyana at such a high level, and plan to give it my all,” said Adonis, who has a season’s best of 10.84 seconds and 21.38 seconds, respectively, in the 100m and 200m.

The 21.38 seconds is also Adonis’ personal best in that event; his PB in the 100m is 10.73 seconds which he attained in 2015.
The national men’s 400m record holder, George, earlier this month ran an IAAF World Championships qualifying time in the event when he clocked 45.49 seconds earlier this month.

His 20.57 seconds in 200m is just inside the 20.44 seconds qualifying time to compete in the event at the World Championships.
McCammon is coming into the competition after recording a 13.43 seconds personal best in the 100m hurdles, which she clocked just a week ago, which was also a new national record for Guyana. In the 400m hurdles she has a season’s best of 59.1 seconds. She’s exactly three seconds off the World Championships qualifying time.