THE Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) president Aubrey Hutson says keen competition can be expected when the 2015 National Senior Championships get under way today, even as he implored fans to come out to the event which will be the first to be held at the recently commissioned National Track and Field Centre in Leonora on the West Coast of Demerara. Though the AAG is still tallying the total number of athletes to perform at the two-day event, Hutson said intense rivalry will be expected from those already down to perform.
“Off the 11 clubs registered, 10 of them will be sending athletes. Only the Region Nine club will not be sending athletes.
“We have the Police Progressive Youth club, and the GDF (Guyana Defence Force) club, which just came back from a successful run at the Hampton Games. We also have the athletes from the Running Brave so we expect keen competition.” Hutson said yesterday.
“Some of the keen competition we can expect will be between Cassey George and Andrea Foster in the 1500m, then we have Kevin Bailey and Devon Barrington in the male 800m. In the 100m we have the GDF athlete Andel Perry, Lionel Mentis, who returned from Ecuador, and Police Progressive’s Tevin Garraway.” Hutson continued
The event which was originally planned for the first weekend in May was postponed and pushed back due to the May 11 elections held last month.
The event, which begins today from 12:00hrs and continues tomorrow beginning at the same time, will be the first official event to be held at the National Track and Field Centre since it was commissioned back in April by the-then President Donald Ramotar.
This makes it Guyana’s first local meet to be held on a synthetic track, at the facility. As such a lot of hype is on who will make the first to win senior championship medals on the new track, and Hutson is encouraging track and field fans everywhere to come out and bear witness.
“The athletes are excited and they are looking forward to the competition; and we are excited and we really and truly want the athletes to come out, and we want the fans to come out,” Hutson noted.
In addition to vying for bragging rights for the next year, the athletes will also be contending for monetary prizes in every race – another first for the competition, Hutson said.
A total of $20 000 will be up for grabs in each event, including field events and invitational events, with a total of 24 events set to play out in the two days.
The competition is open to athletes 16 years old and above, and as such, Hutson pointed out, for those athletes under the age of 20 years monetary prizes will only be dished out in the form of ‘AAG grants’ that is the athletes will receive the money only for educational and training expenses. As stipulated by the IAAF, the AAG cannot give money directly to junior athletes.