… hopeful for 2021 CARIFTA Games also

GUYANA has been confirmed to host the South American Under-23 Games in 2020 and the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) is optimistic that the country will also be confirmed to host the 2021 CARIFTA Games when the decision is officially determined next year at the 2019 CARIFTA Congress.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Chronicle Sport, AAG president Aubrey Hutson established that Guyana is scheduled to host the 2020 South American Under-23 Games after it was decided upon at the South American Athletics Confederation (CONSUDATLE) congress held last July.

Aside from bidding for the South American Under-23 Games, in April of this year the AAG had proposed to host the 2020 CARIFTA Games. However, that bid was won by Bermuda.

Nonetheless, Guyana was favourably received at the congress and, according to Hutson, the general consensus was that Guyana indeed needs to be given a turn to host the event, so it was resolved that Guyana should get 2021.

“As a result of not getting the Games in 2020, the CARIFTA Congress decided that Guyana should be supported and encouraged to host in 2021. All of the countries would have agreed that it’s time that they come to Guyana so they’re willing to give it to us in 2021. All that is needed is the government’s support and it will be here,” Hutson disclosed.

Acknowledging the kind of support needed to carry off events of this magnitude, Hutson said that the AAG is wasting no time in rolling out its plan. Last Saturday the Association held its coaches congress, where the coaches were informed of what’s to come and varying committees are being put together.

“The theme at the conference with the coaches was: How do we create more development in our traditional events while reintroducing the non-traditional events! So we had a few coaches who were given the responsibility of preparing the two teams for the 2020 and 2021.

“Also we had coach Lyndon Wilson who will be looking at developing pole vault in Guyana, that we must at least compete at the event in 2020,” Hutson explained.

A number of camps to gather and train the athletes are also in the works.

“We would’ve earmarked in terms of numbers the amount of athletes that we should train in each discipline, and early next year start to run our camps. We’re looking at camps with over 200 athletes that we have to prepare for these two championships.

“We’re looking at the age to ensure that when we get there they are at the age required; we’re working from age 13 coming up to age 20 because in another 2 years they will be 22 to fall in the Under-23 category,” Hutson said.

This will not be the first time that Guyana will be hosting an international event of this magnitude. Guyana had its first run when it hosted the South American Junior Championships in 2017, given the opportunity to with just a few months to prepare after the-then original host Bolivia pulled out.

That event was deemed a success with the largest audience at the National Track and Field Centre.

Hutson says seeing more international events come to Guyana has always been his plan for taking athletics to the next level.

“What my focus was over the past years was developing the product of athletics. I did not want to go out there and market a product that was not great, and now that I think we’ve reached the place where we have good athletes, we can host good meets,” Hutson said.

“When we go around the Caribbean to other competitions we know that what we do in Guyana is almost on par with what they do. What we need to focus on right now is getting our athletes to be more competitive. We don’t want to host these championships in Guyana and all the medals go to another country. We want to be able to get first.”