PRESIDENT of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) K. Juman-Yassin, believes that Guyana will be represented to the best of the country’s capabilities by the 37 members who will participate at this year’s Commonwealth Games to be held in Glasgow, Scotland from July 23 to August 3.
The selected team, officially announced earlier this week, will reflect Guyana’s performance in seven of the seventeen disciplines that will be contested at this year’s Games; namely boxing, squash, athletics, cycling, swimming, rifle shooting and table tennis.
Athletes to represent Guyana are: Adam Harris, Stephan James and Winston George. Their coach is Kenrick Smith. Cyclists are Alanzo Greaves, Raynauth Jeffrey, Geron Williams, Scott Savory, Marlon Williams, Claire Fraser-Green, with Shaun Green and Dwayne Gibbs.
World-ranked players Nicolette Fernandes, Sunil Seth and Alex Arjoon will represent in squash, accompanied by coach Carl Ince.
Table tennis will be fielding the most competitors – eight: Christopher Franklin, Paul David, Shamar Britton, Idi Lewis on the boys’ side and Trenace Lowe, Chelsea Edghill, Nathalie Cummings, and Ms Jody-Ann Blake on the distaff side. Godfrey Munroe will serve as manager/coach.
In boxing, Guyana will be represented by the lone female, Theresa London, along with Eon Bancroft, Dennis Thomas, Imran Khan/Delon Charles and Terrence Poole as manager/coach.
Swimming and rifle shooting will have two athletes each and one official. Swimmers are Niall Roberts and Onika George with coach Sean Baksh while rifle-shooting participants are Mahendra Persaud, and Lennox Braithwaite with Ransford Goodluck as manager/coach.
Chef-de-Mission for the team will be Garfield Wiltshire and general manager will be Games silver medallist and former track athlete Aliann Pompey.
Yassin said that his expectations for the team are on par with the position that the respective athletes hold, relative to how their performances compare with world standards, and he expects the team to give a good account of themselves.
“Track and field is a different thing, you can go out on the track and have a good day, but at the end of the day it depends on the draw that (they) get. If (they) get the draw against a tough opponent then they can’t advance far in the competition.” Yassin said.
Written By Tamica Garnett