SOME four athletes and one official will this morning depart these shores to begin a two-day journey to Palembang, Indonesia, where they make up part of the team that will be representing Guyana at the Islamic Solidarity Games being held there September 22 – October 1.

Karatekas Nathalie Gibson and Patrick Cheeks, along with track athletes Alika Morgan and Winston George and Chef-de-Mission, Ramjeet Ramphael are expected to join the team’s Athletics coach/manager Leslie Black and Taekwondo athlete Kawall Ramkiran who left for the said Games last Monday.
The five athletes and two officials represent Guyana’s second participation in the Games which involves the participation of athletes from the member states of the Organisation of Islamic Conference of which Guyana is a member.
Present at a press conference held yesterday afternoon to discuss the team’s departure, president of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) K. Juman-Yassin, wished the team well, while noting his elation that karate and taekwondo were given the opportunity to be a part of the team.
“This is another opportunity to give our athletes the exposure and I am very happy that we will be giving taekwondo an extra opportunity to be exposed to international competition; also I’m happy that karate will be there because karate doesn’t get that amount of opportunity so I really am happy about that, and I wish them well.” Yassin said.
Yassin also relayed his high hopes in the team’s performance, particularly singling out George who attended the IAAF World Championships in Russia earlier this year and will be participating in the men’s 200 and 400m races on the track, while Morgan will be in the women’s 1500m and 5 000m.
Ramkiran will participate in the 58kg category and for the karatekas, Cheeks will be in the men’s Over-84 kg and Gibson in the women’s Under-68 kg category.
Ramphael, who was also present at yesterday’s press conference, expressed hopes in the team’s expected performance.
“I believe we have a good team here, and I hope that we will be bringing home a medal, maybe medals.” Ramphael said.
Guyana first attended the Games, which is a multisport event involving sports in 13 various disciplines and was last held in Iran three years ago, back in 2005 when it was hosted by Saudi Arabia.