THE GUYANA Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) is grappling to find a swimmer at the last minute to represent Guyana in that sport at the upcoming Commonwealth Games which begins later this month, after selected swimmer Niall Roberts opted out due to injury. 

Roberts is said to have sustained injury to his rotator cuff while training last week Tuesday, and is currently awaiting an MRI on his shoulder to fully ascertain the severity of his injury, which has put paid to the 21-year-old’s hopes of representing Guyana at the Games to be held in Glasgow, Scotland from July 23 to August 3.
According to Roberts he had been troubling with his rotator cuff – is a group of muscles and their tendons that act to stabilise the shoulder – prior to last week’s incident but didn’t take it seriously until last week Tuesday.
“It was kind of a build-up because I had felt a tightness in my shoulder before but I didn’t really pay much attention to it, then it was last week Tuesday that I felt a pain in my shoulder and over the weekend there was a large amount of pain and it was really bad,” a disappointed Roberts told Chronicle Sport via telephone yesterday.
Had he attended the Games, this would have been his first at the quadrennial meet where he was scheduled to debut in the Men’s 50m and 100m freestyle and 50m butterfly races at the event.
GASA is now left with the challenge of selecting a new swimmer to fill Roberts spot, and participate along with Onika George in the swimming segment of the multisport event, while providing ample justification to the Guyana Olympic Association as to why the newly selected swimmer should be given the chance to attend.
Reports are that GASA is currently overlooking the possibility of using Jamila Sanmoogan as a replacement for Roberts and speaking with Chronicle Sport yesterday Sean Baksh said whoever the swimmer is the chances are very likely that it will be a female swimmer, since it would be more difficult to find a male replacement for Roberts.