THE Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) is set to finalise a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with a Colombian University that will see swimmers being offered scholarships to study in the Spanish-speaking country.

This was yesterday confirmed by president of the GASA, Ivan Persaud, who shared how honoured he felt to be able to extend such possibilities to the swimmers.
“What we want to do is to send swimmers on swimming scholarships, where they are going to be swimming and studying,” Persaud told Chronicle Sport yesterday.
The initiative, which is a bilateral agreement that will also see students of the University coming to train in Guyana, has already begun to bear fruit with one Guyanese swimmer, Jamila Sanmoogan, already stationed in Columbia learning the country’s native tongue ahead of beginning her studies in August.
The University in question is La Escuela Nacional del Deporte (the National School of Sport), a University “structured to perform with a specialisation in sport”, according to the University’s website.
Persaud, a product of the same University, said he has kept up ties with the University since leaving and it was last year that he approached the University’s Director, Jose Fernando Arroyo Valencia, to develop an agreement with the University that would see scholarships offered to Guyanese swimmers. As a result Sanmoogan is being selected as Guyana’s first scholarship recipient of the proposal.
“I approached them with respect to having swimmers from Guyana take up scholarships there, and good luck for our side that they accepted. We sent out invitations to all of the clubs asking them to send in names of swimmers that they think are ready for scholarships; we got replies.
Orca said they had one swimmer but that she’s not ready for a scholarship and Dolphin said they had three swimmers. But the University needed a female swimmer, and it was only one female name we had,” Persaud explained.
Through this bilateral agreement Guyanese swimmers will be offered full-time four-year scholarships to the sports-based University, while from the University end Guyana will be receiving students who will undergo a component of their final year training in Guyana.
The first of the Columbian University trainees is set to arrive in September.
“The University will send to Guyana students who are in their last semester over there to come and do physical conditioning programmes and also coaching programmes here in Guyana. It’s a four-month stint that will be one of their course work, either coaching swimming or doing physical preparation.
“We will take care of boarding, and internal transportation, while the University will take care of salaries and travel arrangements. One is coming in September to December. Another one will come again next year. We can only take two a year, so far, “ Persaud noted.
Following completion of the scholarship, the swimmers can come back and be not only an asset to themselves and the country, but to the sport of swimming as well. Beginning August Sanmoogan will be studying for a Degree in Physiotherapy – a critical area not only in swimming, but in sports overall.
While attending the University the scholarship awardees, who will continue their training concurrent to their studies, will still be considered for selection on teams to represent Guyana at international meets; as is the case with Sanmoogan who will be representing Guyana at the 16th FINA World Championships this year in July in Kazan, Russia.
“Jamila is not gone from swimming, Jamila has gone to enhance her swimming, to enhance Guyana’s swimming. Jamila is training about 8 hours a day, she is under the guidance of the national team coach of Columbia, Mr Fabio Toro, who is also a lecturer at the same University.” Persaud said.
In the case of future awardees, Persaud commented that with most of the swimmers being in their junior years it may be a while before another potential awardee reaches the appropriate age. Meanwhile, Persaud advises that swimmers who are looking to utilise the scholarship should consider taking up Spanish as a subject in school to be better prepared for studies in Colombia.
The MOU in its draft stages is set to be completed before August.

By Tamica Garnett