IN order to develop local athletics, the Amateur Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) is calling for a joint effort from event organisers, stakeholders and corporate sponsors.During an interview, president of the AAG Aubrey Hutson contended that common ground must be sought if the sport is to develop, adding, “There is a lot of differences in the way we view the development of athletes to what is normally done out there.”
“I think it is going to call for some consensus where we sit with these folks and let them understand why things need to be done a particular way; why is it you don’t push an athlete at age 10, 11, 12 to run a 10k and those little things are things we need to work out with them,” contended Hutson.
The AAG boss noted that they are looking to sort out some of the competition issues that faced them in 2015.
“The essence of what we do lies in the competition everything that we do in track and field is manifested in the competition so what we’re trying to do is fix the competition. We had discussions with GTU (Guyana Teachers Union) and the ministry through its Chief Executive Officer on fixing nationals,” continued the AAG head.
He added that, “Once we create the right competition we can now go back into the system and start to prepare people now to meet the level of the competition.”
He dispelled rumours, however, of a rift between the GTU and the AAG saying, “I guess you’ve been seeing stuff in the news media about a big rift between the AAG and the GTU as it relates to the running of Nationals. I want to state clearly there is no rift.
“The AAG would just like to see the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) standards at Nationals being put in the right perspective,” said Hutson.
He concluded, “We never wanted to take the management of Nationals over, you know who collect money at the gate and that kind of stuff. We were concerned about the technical issues and the development of these athletes.”
Upper Demerara/Kwakwani (Linden) District 10 carted off the 2015 edition of the championship during the month of November at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence
They beat North Georgetown for the 55th edition of the premier track and field events after scoring 74 points while North Georgetown ended in second place with 59 points.