COMING out with an improved cycling, and teachers’ team, East Coast Demerara (District 4) are hoping to finish somewhere in the top five this year, when all is said and done at the National Schools Cycling, Swimming and Track and Field Championships (Nationals), which will begin next week Monday in Georgetown.

The District ended eighth out of the 15 Districts last year, and head of the District, Raymond Daw, says that the aim is on progression.
“Our aim for this year is to finish in the top five. Every year we’re looking to improve, so if we finished 8th last year, we’re looking to come between the top five this year. That’s our aim for this year because money is being invested in East Coast for us to be at Nationals and we have to look to get better every year,” Daw remarked.

The District, with a strong cycling team, finished third in the cycling competition last year. However it was in the swimming, teachers and track & field competitions that the team fell short.

Daw expects to see the team make some headway given that some amount of improvements have been made to the teachers’ team, as well as the track & field team, while the cycling team will be even stronger than they were last year.
“Our strongest area would be the children’s track and field where we have the full contingent, as well as the cycling, and teachers. Our only area of concern is our swimmers. We’ve not been doing well in swimming for the last couple of years, but in everything else we are ready to compete in next week’s competition,” he said.

“We came third in cycling last year and we didn’t have a full team for cycling, and this year we have a full team; so we’re going to finish again among the top three again.”
The District will be taking the full complement of 110 persons to the Championships, noting that building the team was not that difficult as the East Coast saw full participation during the inter-schools level of the competition.

In the athletics sector, Daw, an athletics coach himself, said major strides were made to see that the selected athletes were working on their skills. While he could not get all 70 of the athletes to come together and train, they were divided into groups that would train in their respective areas within the District.
And there have been athletes who are showing promise.

“We have some quality people, they are seasoned campaigners, while they may not have been the standout persons. We have worked with them and they will come out and compete well. Currently we’re working in groups.
“Being an experienced coach myself I lend support, and we work in groups, some are working down in Buxton, some are working down in Golden Grove, there are some in Plaisance who would go to Georgetown to do their training, so we have been working on them,” he explained.

To add to their training the athletes will be brought together and taken to do a final training session over at the synthetic track of the National Track and Field Centre (NTFC) on the West Coast. So those athletes who have never competed on an all-weather track can get a feel of the facility prior to Monday’s start.

The Championships will open on Monday with the swimming at the National Aquatic Centre on the East Coast and the cycling competition at the National Park. The athletics competition will run from Tuesday to Friday and will be held at the NTFC, with the teachers’ competition running simultaneously at the same venue.