AT THE heart of every sport is the athlete. Without the athletes, it’s nothing; which is why if you’re looking for real development in any sport that’s where you start. This is especially true for the sport of athletics. Though strides have been made over the years aimed at athlete development, the system still leaves much to be desired. That’s why the next step for athletics in Guyana is the realisation of a selected group of premier athletes. And according to Athletics Association of Guyana president, Aubrey Hutson, Guyana can hope to see the emergence of such an elite squad programme, much sooner than later, as soon as before the end of the year, actually.
“I think putting the elite squad together has its benefits from several standpoints.
(1) You get the viewpoints of a lot more people involved
(2) The athlete’s development is more structured
(3) We are not leaving the athlete on his own to fend for himself to bring glory for an entire nation.” Hutson said.
“So after November I hope that the coaches can really and truly come together and name this squad and let us start looking at the budget to ensure that the squad is sustained.”
Given the constant struggles faced by athletes over the years, this squad is long overdue. With the Caribbean renowned for its production of stellar athletes Guyana has long been touted to contain the potential to make it in Athletics.
However, talk is cheap, and despite all that has been said, Guyana is still yet to earn its first Olympic medal. Matter of fact, notwithstanding a handful of eye-catching performances regionally and internationally, Guyana is still to get out of the starting blocks when it concerns Athletics.
Our biggest boasting point to date is the silver medal earned by Aliann Pompey at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, but that was over five years ago. Pompey has since retired from the track. She is concerned now with trying to give back to the sport through administration.
And so Guyana waits for its next big international performance, hoping perhaps that it comes from our current leading athlete Winston George, who specialises in the men’s 100m, 200m and 400m.
George earlier this year broke the national men’s 400m record twice; so hopes that he can pull off a world-leading performance for Guyana are merited. However, even then we have a long way to go. Meanwhile some upcoming young athletes still languish away struggling to have their necessary needs met when it comes to training. But perhaps all of that can change.
Over the years we have asked athletes to bring home the medals, without willing to put much in place in terms of investments in our athletes, perhaps the AAG may be ready to put its money where its mouth is.
Sitting down with Chronicle Sport earlier this week, Hutson revealed that the programme is being worked on by coaches of different clubs. The biggest impediment remaining is deciding, who, and how many, should be on the squad.
“That has been the big question why the squad is not named as yet,” Hutson said
“You see one of the key questions is what is manageable, with the limited amount of coaches we have, you can only look at a certain number of athletes.”
Where in the past athletes were left to fend for themselves, this elite squad, Hutson says, will eradicate several of the constraints faced by athletes as they go about working on their athletic skills.
“It’s not just about their training, it’s about their nutrition, it’s about their diet, it’s about how much funding that we could give to them to support this lifestyle that is needed to become an elite athlete. That kind of stuff is what we need to put in place. So we’re working on it.” Hutson said in an interview with this publication earlier this week.
But will the athletes be able to step up to the plate and prove that a lack of support was all that was missing, and be able to achieve leading timings once those impediments are removed.
Hutson took the opportunity to point out that with the dynamics of a sport like Athletics, timings are forever changing.
Ironically it is a fair question but it’s a difficult one at the same time. Let me explain why. Earlier in the year, and in the year before, everybody was running 44s (in the men’s 400m). So he (George) figured if he can just get into that 44 seconds realm he could be in the finals, he’ll be on the money. Even low 45s can get you into the finals. George runs 45.25 (in Beijing) which is a new national record, and the guys start to run 43s. So you find now you’re competing on a scale that continues to change, even though you’re aiming at a number that number can change. And you get a medal by being the fastest – first, second, third fastest – on the given time, on the given day.
And while Hutson admits that the system may come up against its own share of challenges, doing something will definitely be better than doing nothing.
“I like to quote the president of the Jamaican Athletics Federation who says an athlete does not produce himself, he is the product of the product of a system, and the degree of success he achieves is proportionate to the effectiveness of the system.
“If you have no system, you wouldn’t have anybody, if you have an ineffective system the only way you can know is by trying it. So we must do something, we just can’t sit and fold our arms and say, well don’t let us try anything.”