… Why no standards issued from AAG

THE POLICE Progressive Youth Club (PPYC) claimed they did not receive any qualifying standards from the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) for the CARIFTA 2014 trials and as such is questioning why none of their athletes was selected for this year’s CARIFTA Games.

Olympic and head coach of PPYC, Lyndon Wilson, told this publication that he does not know any reason for the AAG not sending the qualifying standards to the club.
“I was made to understand that a lot of clubs did not receive any standards, I personally want to know from the AAG president if indeed there were any standards because how could they pick athletes to represent Guyana and they failed to send us the standards,” Wilson said.
“I am very disappointed because we worked hard and our distance ace Grivon Grant should have been on the CARFITA team since he did not have any competition.
The AAG needs to step up in their duties because those standards should have given out at least two months before the trials. We have known CARIFTA to be the cradle for the entire Caribbean, Bolt and Blake born from there so they should have at least given Grants the chance,” Wilson reiterated.
The assistant coach of the PPYC, Mark Scott, said he does not know what standards the AAG used because his club did not receive any qualifying standards.
“Guyana have been doing well at the long distance at CARIFTA and if we are sending athletes for experience, Grivon Grant should have been the number one because in both the 1500 and 5 000 metres he ran unchallenged.
“I felt that Grant had lost a golden opportunity maybe to medal at CARIFTA. Maybe the AAG sees things different and do things different. I saw in other media publications that qualifying standards were given to coaches, I personally don’t know what standards they are speaking about,” said a passionate Scott, who later expressed his disappointment.
Grant, who posted 4.22s and 17.37s in the Under-20 1500 and 5 000 metres respectively, with no competition, winning both events by some distance said he should have been given the chance to represent Guyana at the CARIFTA games,
“I feel demotivated and disappointed since I know I could have made it to CARIFTA. I felt really bad because every day I go out and put my all at training, I felt like I’m not being recognized; I feel like giving up now because Guyanese athletes need international exposure to hone their skills,” said Grant.

(By Asif Hakim)