U.S. Track Star Kristi Castlin’s lit up the Leonora Synthetic track with her magnetism and heart-melting smile as she embraced scores of schoolchildren and officials from the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) and the Ministry of Sport upon her visit to the facility. 

“I feel honoured and appreciated coming here to Guyana, I would love to spend more time actually doing some hurdle clinics,” Castlin said while speaking to reporters at the venue.
Castlin is a seven-time NCAA All American athlete. She’s also a five-time Atlantic Coast Conference (AAC) Champion in the 60m and 100m hurdles. In 2009, Castlin ran 12.91 seconds to be the 100m American Junior record-holder, the same year she became the Pan American Junior record-holder over the same distance.
At present, Guyana do not compete in the hurdles and some had questioned how much her visit will inspire the local athletes to take up hurdling.
Nonetheless, the world-rated hurdler pointed out, “Hurdles is a very dynamic event because a lot of people who can do the hurdles are very diverse, strong, ballistic, explosive, so it’s an important event to have here because it doesn’t limit the athlete.”
But as simple as it may seem, the American was adamant that those in authority have to make sure that, more importantly, the coaches have to be educated.
“It’s a very technical event and there’s so much that goes into it; so it will take a lot from the coaches’ standpoint and it will take a lot of research because the coach has to be very knowledgeable, learning the technicality and how to polish the athlete because the hurdlers cannot be their very best if their technique is not very good.” Castlin said.
Meanwhile, Guyanese will get a chance to see first hand, the American in training at the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) when the AAG hosts a cluster sports day and practice for national competition and according to Castlin “I’ll be going through my normal routine and some key elements that I use when I’m racing and I think it will be a good opportunity for coaches to learn and pass on to their athletes so I’ll be giving a lot of pertinent information”
Castlin is expected to visit several schools in the city today and will wrap up her visit to Guyana tomorrow.

(By Rawle Toney)