PRESIDENT Donald Ramotar, speaking to a huge audience of mostly school students and young athletes, declared that Guyanese youths deserve nothing but the best, as he declared the synthetic track facility at Leonora, West Coast Demerara, officially open yesterday during a festive ceremony.“Our young people deserve nothing less than the best and we must have the best”, the President exclaimed to an applauding crowd.

”It is indeed a good time to be young, a very, very good time to be young (with) all of the facilities that we are putting down to help in the welfare of the country.

“And this facility is only one of a series of facilities that we have been putting down to help the development of our people, we have the stadium … we have the aquatic centre, another world class standard.”
Branded the ‘National Track and Field Centre’, the facility, costing just outside US$5M, extends over some 22 acres of land and includes a certified all-weather synthetic track, as well as a football field, and complementary spectator stands and facilities.
The opening of the facility marks a major developmental realisation for the track fraternity who have struggled in their need for such a facility to train national athletes.
Additionally, a former lack of a synthetic track facility has been a principal impediment in Guyana bidding to host regional and international track events, a point the President touched on in his remarks.
“This facility gives us the possibility of holding many events in Guyana where we could not have done so in the past. We will now be exposing our people, our sports men and women, to more regional and international competition and many of (those competitions), we hope, will take place right here to help inspire our children, our young people to participate in sports and bring glory to themselves … with this we hope that sports will bring our country great glory,” Ramotar said.
Outside of the hopes for the hosting of regional and international events, the President noted that he is very much looking forward to seeing the track being utilised locally for competitions such as the annual Schools Track competitions.
“I would like to see all the schools’ sports activities, their track and field sports activities being held here on this facility, so that it can also serve to inspire them to achieve higher and higher goals. I hope that the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Sport will work closely together to ensure that sports play a bigger and bigger role in the curriculum of schools.” Ramotar stated.
Ramotar further remarked on how the development of sport could lead to development of even the economic sector, with the potential to favourably contribute to Guyana’s tourism industry.
“It also has many economic benefits it can bring to us. We need to attract more regional and international competitions here. By doing so we would be able to attract more people to our country, more tourists will come to our country, and more people will be aware of the beauty of Guyana and more will want to come and see what Guyana is all about.”
Meanwhile, also making remarks at the event were the Minister of Sport Dr Frank Anthony, Director of Sport Neil Kumar, Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport Permanent Secretary, Alfred King, as well as president of the Athletics Association of Guyana, Aubrey Hutson, and representative from the Guyana Football Federation, Stuart May, among others. The ceremony was chaired by Deputy Permanent Secretary, Steve Ninvalle.
Minister Anthony reminded the audience of the great role that sports could play in breeding social cohesion in our multicultural, multiethnic society, which is why the government continues to invest in the sector.
“We want to see sports being used as a unifying force, and that is why the government has spent so much money, and will continue to spend on the development of sports in our country.
“With this facility, it would open up new possibilities, new opportunities for the young people, opportunities that the generation before them could not have experienced because they did not have certified facilities like this one,” Anthony said.

By Tamica Garnett