DEFENDING Inter-Guiana Games (IGG) male and female athletics champions, Guyana, will be heading to French Guiana next week with a 26-man squad that coach Lyndon Wilson believes is more than capable of retaining the title.
Guyana is set to compete with host country French Guiana, Suriname and Brazil in the disciplines of football , athletics, swimming and chess with all having both male and female participation. Speaking with Chronicle Sport yesterday, Wilson, who was part of the 2008 and 2009 victorious squad, said that the team is made up of mostly newcomers since the more premier and regular athletes are tied up in other games and commitments to school.
“I believe this team has what it takes to retain the championships. They have been working very hard since before the selection because we had the trials and it was a bit tough to select the team because they were all good. But we came up with the best possible team who we feel can go there and win,” said Wilson.
In both 2008 and 2009, Guyana convincingly took home the championship trophy in the discipline of athletics and this year, Wilson said, that it would be no different.
He said that all of the athletes are more than excited to participate this year because of the synthetic track in the French territory.
“The kids are very upbeat about this year’s games because they all want to run on track,” Wilson pointed out, while also noting that “for us it’s a win-win situation because if you look at our athletes’ performances outside of Guyana on these synthetic tracks, they always perform above par, some of them also better their personal best times and so on, so I think that is what makes it stand out this year that the kids will have a chance to run on a true surface and I’m sure they will do their best.”
Meanwhile, in terms of training, Wilson said that the athletes have been responding well and that they should be brought together before the team departs on March 24.
‘Well the athletes are not training together right now, we have those in Georgetown in my care, the ones from Berbice and Linden are training with the respective coaches in those regions and I’ve been getting some good reports on them. We should be together from this weekend until we are ready to depart,” Wilson said.
The first leg of the 2010 IGG is set for March 26-28 in French Guiana and the Guyana squad will depart on Wednesday March 24 to overnight in Suriname and then arrive in Cayenne on March 25.
It’s been several years since the locals have journeyed to the French colony to participate in the games with their last notable absence being in 2007 after the National Sports Commission (NSC) who is responsible for the games, opted not to compete because of the hosting of matches during the 2007 Cricket World.
In 2008 French Guiana had planned to host the second leg of the games in their fascinating town of Kourou but a day before the two countries (Guyana and Suriname) departed, a countrywide protest over fuel forced them to call off the championships.
Last year, Guyana hosted the first leg and only won the Athletics championship while Suriname clamed both the male and female swimming and football title.
Suriname then hosted the second stage where they won the male basketball, cycling and volleyball to retain the over-all championship trophy.
Guyana will host the second leg of the games this year.