… looks to make a comeback for 2017

IT has been said that a ‘setback is a setup for a better comeback’, and that’s exactly what Guyanese quarter-miler Jason Yaw is hoping to use his 2017 athletic season to achieve.
Starting out as an athlete when he was just nine years old in 2006, by 2013 the Bladen Hall Multilateral student was one of the most talked-about athletic prospects.
At 6’ 2’ Jason always stood above the rest.

All the way up to 2015 Jason was travelling the world representing Guyana at the highest junior level. From Ukraine for World Youth Championships in 2013, to Nanjing, China for the Youth Olympic Games in 2014, to Toronto, Canada for the Pan American Junior Championships in 2015.
But at the peak of his junior career Jason fell off the radar. Faced with a number of challenges that broke him down physically and mentally, the 19-year-old had a pretty undeveloped 2016 season.
We dedicate our inaugural 2017 Sports Personality column to Jason as he prepares to make his hopeful rebound.

A CARIFTA Games multiple bronze medallist, South American Youth Championships record holder, South American Youth Games double bronze medallist, National Schools Championships record holder, Inter Guiana Games gold medallist and a two-time Junior Sportsman-of-the-Year, and yet Jason Yaw still slipped through the cracks.
The support was never there.
“Since last year I was having a mental breakdown towards the sports so I’m trying to catch myself. My plan is to try to come back strong and try to break my 46-second barrier,” said Jason who has 400m personal best of 46.79 seconds. Guyana’s national record, held by Winston George, is 45.25 seconds.

Things took a turn for the worse for Jason when he accepted a scholarship to study and train at Western Texas College in the U.S. For many, an overseas scholarship is a blessed opportunity, for Yaw it was a nightmare. Jason returned in May 2016 just as quietly as he had left the preceding January.
“The training programme wasn’t good, that’s one; the other thing was that the food they gave us didn’t taste good. The system that they put in place wasn’t for me. I started to feel down,” Jason explained.
“I decided not to continue my studies because I never had the type of coaching or support to make me reach to the next level.”

Jason’s deplorable experiences ranged from tackling racism issues to struggling to afford basic commodities such as food and water, not to mention dealing with a lack of support from the home front, and feeling lost and isolated for being so far away from people familiar to him and his culture.
Approximately 20 other Caribbean nationals at the school were also facing the same situation. Many also returned home, others who could not afford to return had no option but to stay. Luckily Jason was able to secure assistance from the GOA to sponsor his ticket.
But the damage was done. The bad experience almost drove this talented athlete to giving up athletics for good, and even now he’s still coming to grips with the harsh reality of what it truly means to be a Guyanese athlete.

“When I was in America for that short period of time, I didn’t get the treatment and support that I expected, so I just say I would give up on my running career, but after a little counselling I felt better; so I said to myself I’ll give it a next shot,” Yaw says as he looks to 2017, with hope.
However, with his 20th birthday approaching this month-end, Jason’s recovery will be all the more difficult since he will now be a senior, where the competition on the world stage is being dominated by the likes of Grenada’s Kirani James and South Africa’s Wayde Van Niekerk.
On a good note Jason was named as part of the National Sports Commission’s (NSC) pilot programme that will be seeing how much they can directly assist the athletes in their training and nutrition.

(tgarnett_sports@yahoo.com)