Guyana is drawn in Group Four in the Caribbean Zone of the 2015 Women’s Olympic Qualifiers, which will be hosted in St Kitts and Nevis from August 21-25.While the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) is yet to make an official announcement, Chairman of the Normalisation Committee Clinton Urling had confirmed the team’s participation in a recent interview with Chronicle Sport.

“We’ve reactivated the women’s squad and we will be sending a women’s team to Olympic Qualifiers but Claude (Bolton) will tell you guys more about that later,” Urling said.

Guyana will be placed alongside the host (St Kitts & Nevis) and Cuba.

Having seen success against both countries in 2010, Guyana will now look to replicate their performance on August 21 when they face St Kitts and Cuba on August 25.

Group One will be hosted by Puerto Rico and fields Aruba, Puerto Rico, Haiti and Grenada. Group Two features St Lucia, Antigua & Barbuda, the Cayman Islands and Trinidad & Tobago, to be staged in Trinidad & Tobago.

The Group Three games will be played in Suriname and the teams in this group are Dominica Republic, Dominica and Jamaica.

While the tournament has an age limit of Under-23 for men born on or after January 1, 1993, there is no age ceiling for the Women’s Qualifiers.

Three teams will advance from the female category into the CONCACAF Women’s Summer Olympic Tournament for 2016.

Technical Director Claude Bolton had hinted to the ‘Lady Jags’ return and had told the Chronicle possibility exists for the bulk of the team once again being made up of overseas based players.

In 2010, Guyana participated in the CONCACAF Gold Cup, which was held in Cancun Mexico (October 28 – November 8).

The ‘Lady Jags’ had qualified after beating Cuba in a home (0–1) and away (3–1) playoff to become the first Guyanese team to feature at the Gold Cup; the pinnacle of CONCACAF football.

At the tournament in Mexico, Guyana grouped with the home side, Trinidad and Tobago, which at the time was coached by Jamaal Shabazz, and Canada.

The Guyanese unit failed to pick up a win at the competition, losing 7–2 against Mexico, 8–0 to Canada and 4–1 to Trinidad and Tobago but in the end, they turned out to be the darlings of the tournament.

Most of the players from the 2010 team were standout players in the USA and Canada collegiate system and Bolton had told reporters recently that he was in contact with former women’s head Coach Mark Rodrigues for information on the whereabouts of the ‘Lady Jags’ now.

By Rawle Toney