A GUYANESE South American Youth team will be participating in the inaugural South American Youth Championships which is scheduled to take place in Lima, Peru from September 20.

The Guyanese team departing on September 17 will feature a 31-member squad comprising seven sporting disciplines, namely Athletics, Badminton, Boxing, Cycling, Swimming, Table Tennis and Weightlifting.
During a press briefing yesterday at Olympic House, the members along with their coaches were named. The president of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA), K.A Juman-Yassin, noted that the event which was funded exclusively by the GOA in excess of $5M can be the start of the road to Rio for the athletes.
He said, “Funding for the team is totally from the GOA. We have not asked any of the associations for help with the funding. The team has about 30 persons and it is, hopefully, the start of the careers for these young athletes. For some it is the start of the road to Rio and for most it should be start for the road to Tokyo in 2020.”
Coach for the Athletics team Julian Edmonds was quick to commend the GOA for giving the athletes time to acclimatise.
“We have an experienced team, they all are healthy and preparing for the National Youth Championship so they are fit and I must congratulate the GOA on getting us there early so that we can acclimatise because it is going to be a bit cold over there and we should be able to put in about five to six training sessions before the games athletics begin,” Edmonds said.
The GOA boxer disclosed that more needs to be done for boxing in Guyana since it has brought Guyana’s only Olympic medal. The coach of the boxing team, Wincel Thomas, believes that his team is well prepared for the challenge.
“We have two experienced boxers on the team and we are now winding down training at the Sixhead Lewis Gym. We are well prepared and our team should do well,” Thomas told media representatives.
Meanwhile, all the coaches are of the belief that the teams are well prepared and will be even more so, given the chance to adjust to the climate.
Teams: Athletics – Julian Edmonds (coach); Jason Yaw, Tirana Mitchell, Andrea Foster and Dequan Vancooten.
Badminton: Gokarn Ramdhani (coach; Ambika Ramraj and Narayan Ramdhani.
Boxing: Wincel Thomas (coach); Tefon Greene, Travis Fraser, Joel Williamson and Michael April.
Cycling: William Howard (coach); Akeem Arthur, Alonzo Ambrose, Shaquel Agard, Stepano Husbands and Crystal Lambert.
Swimming: Sean Baksh (coach); Hannibal Gaskin, Onika George and Omar Adams.
Table Tennis: Linden Johnson (coach); Shemar Britton and Chelsea Edghill.
Weightlifting: Sean Cozier (coach); Sheriah Melville, Darren Williams and Denoila Bristol.