GUYANA Olympic Association (GOA) President, K. Juman Yassin along with Chef de Mission of the XIX Commonwealth Games, Garfield Wiltshire met with the media yesterday at Olympic House in Kingston to give their assessment of Guyana’s participation at the just concluded Commonwealth Games which saw a lot of the team members receiving commendation for sterling efforts in representing Guyana.
Of the 49- member contingent, 32 of whom were participants with the remaining 17 being officials, only the three boxers were verbally scathed for the faux pas they committed when they absconded abroad.
Jessica Stevenson the 15 year- old swimmer who continues to display an innate ability in the pool was noted as having recorded a personal best time of 35.03s in the 50m Breaststroke which she finished as the 20th out of 31 competitors. She also gave consistent performances in the 100m and 200m breaststroke races.
The rifle shooting duo of Ransford Goodluck and Mahendra Persaud were also noted for their outstanding fifth place finish in the pair’s competition of that discipline. The table tennis team improved on their best overall standing of 13th , from the 2006 edition of the games, as they finished in 11th placed this year. Cyclist Geron Williams was also commended for finishing 31st out of a field of over 100 competitors in the road race which was only completed by 52 cyclists.
And lastly but certainly not the least in terms achievement is the 400m silver medallist Aliann Pompey who recorded her season’s best time of 51.63s at the event and afforded Guyana 29th place out of the 71 competing nations by the virtue of her performance.
Yassin gave her great thanks for her continued representation of Guyana, he noted that she has remained dedicated over the years and always puts her best foot forward whenever she takes to the track with the weight of the nation on her shoulders.
He also lashed out against comments, that he regarded as totally out of place, which were made in the another section of the media about Pompey not being shown the appreciation that she earned by saying that he was on hand in New Delhi to offer personal thanks to the silver medallist on behalf of the GOA. According to him the magnitude of her feat was in no way diminished because of alleged unsung praises.
The GOA President also sang the praises of Stevenson noting that she shows great potential as she is able to compete at a world class event with such high level competitors at the tender age of 15 years.
Yassin  said that her supportive and nurturing parents also qualify for praise for their hand in the youngster’s development. The GOA boss also addressed the great improvement in the cyclists, with special mention of the feat accomplished by Geron Williams.
Yassin related that he too was utterly disturbed and disappointed by the deplorable actions of the boxers which he believes will cause retrogression where international travel for local sportsmen and women is concerned.
He also rebuffed the comments made by Director of Sport Neil Kumar who stated that money was wasted by sending athletes to the Games and went further to state that apart from the support received by the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) there were other funds given to the GOA. Yassin noted that this affected the training of the other members of the contingent and he said that mechanisms need to be employed to assist in this respect.
He made an example of Aliann Pompey’s plight stating that she bears the brunt of the expenses that she incurs representing Guyana with her only assistance coming  from the GOA.