THE Government of Guyana has been given the thumbs up for its efforts to assist with the development of local track and field athletes and by extension local football, but it is the view of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) president K. Juman-Yassin that there is need for specialists in a number of areas to ensure local athletes reach their true potential.

In a recent interview with Chronicle Sport, Yassin said the construction of the synthetic facility situated at Leonora, West Coast Demerara is very thoughtful and he praised the Government of Guyana, especially Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr Frank Anthony for their thoughtfulness “but we need to have specialists in the areas of nutrition, we need to have doctors, we need to use science to monitor our athletes to gauge their abilities, but most importantly, we need to have competent coaches.” The GOA head stated.
“To have competent coaches, we need to ensure local coaches are upgraded, so we need to have a foreign coach based in Guyana for at least six months to take our coaches to another level,” Yassin stated.
“There is need for full-time coaches in Guyana as there are no high level track and field coaches here in Guyana … Maybe there are some full-time coaches at the National Sports Commission … I don’t know … but if there is … they are not high level coaches.”
The GOA head continued, “Parallel to this is for our athletes to be full time athletes … those at school should have adequate time for training and those not at school should not have to work at their places of employ for eight hours daily. They need to have time off for training and that’s the only way track and field or any sport for that matter will get better in Guyana.”
Yassin said while he is very happy to know that a synthetic facility for track and field is under construction at Leonora, he has not seen it as yet and is still to be given an official invitation to have a look at it.
He said, “Maybe there are members of the GOA that represent the various associations that have been invited to have a first-hand view of the works going on at the Leonora facility, but I have never been given an invitation to view it myself. Maybe some day I’ll have that opportunity.”
Asked if the GOA was ever a part of the construction of the facility, the former Chief Magistrate said not as far as he knows.
The Leonora synthetic facility was recently certified by the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) as a class two facility, making it the first internationally recognised athletic facility in Guyana, thereby creating an opportunity for local athletes using the facility, to have times to be recognised internationally.
The track can also see athletes from outside of Guyana training and competing at the Leonora facility.
Two stands on the north eastern and north western sections of the facility are expected to be completed shortly along with the members’ booth and these are expected to house approximately 10 000 spectators. These will be complemented with other stands at other parts of the facility.

(By Michael DaSilva)