PRESIDENT Donald Ramotar yesterday officially commissioned the GY$37.3M warm-up pool at Liliendaal and said that the occasion shows his administration’s development and investment in the country’s most valuable asset – the youths. The warm-up pool, which is 21 metres wide, carries both a shallow end and a deep end ranging between 1.175m and 1.82m.

D & S Construction was responsible for the structurural foundation while the pre-fabricated pool was sourced from, and installed by Myrtha Pool Company at a cost of US$288,600. ; the same company that supplied the pre-fabricated structure for the initial 50m pool.
Construction of the warm-up pool, which began back in September 2013, complements the Olympic-size swimming pool which was opened in 2011 by former President Bharrat Jagdeo.
The former President at the time, made a commitment for the installation of the warm-up pool, which is one of many requirements necessary before international events can be hosted at the facility.
President Ramotar pointed out that the completion of the facility now gives Guyana “the expectations and the possibilities for our country to be recognised as a sporting power and I do expect that Guyana would be recognised with gold medals in swimming at the Olympics and other events in our Americas and at the rest of the World.”
With the synthetic track at Leonora set to open on March 27, the Head-of-State pointed out that the facility at Liliendaal is one in a line of facilities that his administration is building to ensure that young people would have the facilities to help them become world champions.
“I refer first of all to the stadium. Now we have this facility and very soon we will be opening the new world-class track facility as well, in the West Demerara area. We’re also seeing these investments as a search for talent so that our people can express themselves and over the years we would have spent millions of dollars on community grounds and facilities, right across our country, to ensure that we are able to bring out the talent from wherever they are,” said President Ramotar.
With the Minister of Sport Dr Frank Anthony, president of the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) Ivan Persaud, as well as FINA vice-president Dale Neuburger, South America Swimming Confederation president Juan Carlos Ortheila and Director of Sport Neil Kumar all forming part of the head table at the National Aquatic Centre during the auspicious occasion, President Ramotar spoke of the importance sports can play as a unifying factor.
“Sports,” the President said, “has the capacity of bringing people together and that is very essential particularly in a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society like ours. We hope to make an important contribution in bringing people together so that they can all realise their one common dream in making out country a better place.”
He added “Sport and culture contribute tremendously in satisfying the material needs as a people and give our country recognition so that we can promote our country as a destination where people would want to come and see.”
It is the hope of the current administration to see the entire country benefiting from having state-of-the-art facilities in their communities, but President Ramotar said “while we might be able at this point in time to put one of these facilities in each and every community across the country, I’m hoping that we can still spot the talent and bring them to the international facility so that they can properly develop themselves in the process”.