PRIME Minister Samuel Hinds yesterday emphasised the importance of personal interaction in strengthening unity, as he declared the Inter-Guiana Games open at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, Homestretch Avenue. 

Athletes from Suriname, French Guiana, and Guyana will for three days compete in the sporting disciplines of swimming, track and field and basketball, and in an encouraging address Hinds implored the athletes to give of their best and play fair as they vie against each other.
“I want to emphasise that it is important that each athlete does his best and goes out to win but that is not all, we are working here also to develop friendship, and it is important that we compete fairly and I hope that we have an incident-free Inter-Guiana Games 2014.
“It gives me great pleasure therefore to declare the Inter-Guiana Games 2014 open,” Prime Minister Hinds said.
Mentioning that ties between the three countries have developed over the years, Hinds said that it is more than just competing to see who had the best athletes. The annual Games is about creating an opportunity for bringing the three countries together through personal interactions.
“These games are important for creating the opportunity, the occasion, for contact between our young people in our high schools.
“We want to come together in these Guianas but in order to come together there must be more and more personal contact, and these games are important in creating those opportunities. We have been building relationships and we can look forward to even greater relationships in the years to come,” Hinds continued.
The opening ceremony, which also included cultural displays, featured remarks from Director of Sport Neil Kumar as well as from representatives from each of the three countries.
Kumar, a member of the National Sports Commission which organised the hosting of the Games, also noted the important role that the Games has played in bringing the countries together, adding how heartening it was that the countries could travel to Guyana to be a part of the event.
Representatives from Suriname and French Guiana, through translators, expressed how happy they were to be a part of the Games, also noting how the Games has worked to help to bring the three countries together, with hopes that the Games would develop in the future.
Competition in the Games began yesterday morning when the swimming segment got under way at the National Aquatic Centre, Liliendaal, where Guyana netted a number of medals.
Following the opening ceremony the Games continued with basketball matches.
Basketball and swimming will continue today at their respective venues while athletics will take place at the Guyana Defence Force ground.
The competition ends tomorrow.

(By Tamica Garnett)