AS it concerns today’s Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) elections, president of the Guyana

Boxing Association (GBA) Steve Ninvalle says his hope is that whoever is elected has the best interest of sports at heart, and the boxing fraternity will be looking to work with whoever is elected on the executive.

Speaking with Chronicle Sport earlier this week, Ninvalle, who is out of the country, said that once the elections are democratic and the elected officials have the development of sports at heart then his Association looks forward to working with them.
“My only hope is that the elections are run in a democratic way in keeping with the constitution and whosoever may win we are willing to work with that person.
“Whoever wins I hope that sports will get its just and right support, and support doesn’t always come with finance and equipment; someone who has sports at heart and someone who can move us from point A to point B and get all the departments together to take us forward,” Ninvalle said.

Unless a surprising upset presents itself today, from all appearance incumbent president K. A. Juman-Yassin is set to return to the helm of the GOA. He has indicated his intention to contest the post of presidency, while thus far no other candidate has publicly indicated any possibility of vying for the position.
A lot of criticism has been directed at the GOA’s administration, particularly Yassin over the years. This condemnation intensified in the lead-up to the elections. Yassin has been the head of the Association since he took over in 1996.

Some critics believe that Yassin must shoulder the blame for Guyana’s failure to perform creditably on the international scene. This lack of notable performance was brought to the fore with Guyana’s presentation at the Rio Olympics back in August of this year, where only one of the six participants made it into a final. Our one finalist was USA-born and bred, Troy Doris, who has Guyanese lineage through his parents.
However, on that issue Ninvalle expressed that he does not believe that the blame for the failure of sports in Guyana can be laid at the feet of any one entity.
“When you look at sports in Guyana it’s a multi-faceted thing. Until all hands are on deck we will keep casting blame left, right and centre. If all hands are not on deck we can’t take sports anywhere.

“We cannot, and should not, blame anyone department alone for sports not to be taken anywhere. Getting sport from where it is to where we want it to be has to be a multi-faceted approach – with efforts from the government, the GOA, the private sector, and the Associations,” Ninvalle commented.
The GOA Annual General Meeting (AGM) and elections will go down at 17:00hrs at the body’s Liliendaal headquarters, where representatives from a total of 23 sporting associations across Guyana are expected to vote in the new seven-member executive.
The executive comprises the president, three vice-presidents, the secretary-general, the treasurer, and assistant secretary-treasurer

The 23 sporting fraternities expected to cast votes are athletics, badminton, baseball, basketball, bodybuilding, boxing, canoeing, cycling, fencing, football, hockey, judo, karate, netball, rifle-shooting, rugby, weightlifting, table tennis, taekwondo, lawn tennis, swimming, squash and volleyball.
Each association is allowed two electors.