WITH Guyana’s team to next month’s Flow CARIFTA Games being named, the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) president Aubrey Hutson is awaiting a proposal from the coaching panel to put together a training programme for the 12 representing athletes.
According to Hutson the coaches will give an exact outline of what the plan will include and submit it within the next few days.

“That decision is going to be made by the coaching panel that is going with the team, and the other coaches that we have certified.
“They are scheduled for a meeting by the end of the week and they are going to put together a proposal on how we will handle the team between now and their departure.” Hutson said.
Following the conclusion of the CARIFTA qualifying period last Sunday, 12 athletes have attained qualifying marks in various events at the international event, and all will be afforded the opportunity to go.
The team consists of one athlete in each of the four categories at the Games. In the Youth (Under-18) category Linden’s Chantoba Bright will lead the Girls’ side which also includes sprinters Kenisha Phillips and Onasha Rogers, as well as distance runner Claudrice McKoy.
The Boys’ youth category will see the return of Daniel Williams, while this year Christianburg’s Tremaine Browne and Tarique Boyle also made the cut.
The Boys’ Junior (Under-20) category has Compton Caesar, Anfernee Headecker, Samuel Lynch, and Matthew McKenzie. Overseas-based Natricia Hooper is the only junior female athlete.

The team is comprised of fairly seasoned athletes, including CARIFTA silver medallists Bright and Hooper, and Williams, who last year finished second in the Boys’ Under-18 400m but was later disqualified after stepping out of his lane. Over 60% of the team attended the Games last year.
The team will be accompanied by Linden coaches Johnny Gravesande and Moses Pantlitz, and team manager Yvonne October. The athletes come from four clubs across Guyana, while Hooper is the only overseas-based athlete on the team. Just over 40% of the team’s athletes are from Linden, with the remainder coming exclusively from Georgetown clubs.
Apart from Christianburg the clubs represented are Upper Demerara, the Guyana Defence Force, and Running Brave.

Hutson said some amount of effort was made to have athletes from outside of Georgetown included at the meets over the past few weeks since the trials began in February.
“We’ve been offering passage assistance to persons coming down. We did get a lot of Berbice athletes but for me I was more looking for the ones further up in the Skeldon, Albion areas.
“We did not get people coming down from Corentyne. We were trying to find out what was going on with Delroy Leitch, but he subsequently joined the army and is currently involved in military training,” Hutson said.
“Ricky Williams (from District Nine) did come; He came to two of the three trials. Just last weekend we had Joshua Williams from District One, where we gave some financial assistance for him to be here. The region would have taken care of his air fare; we did contributions to his meal and accommodation.”

Hutson, however, did admit that as it pertains to reaching out to athletes in the far-off areas more needs to be done by the AAG.
“As it relates to far-flung areas, I don’t think we would have done enough work getting athletes constantly involved in athletics even after school nationals.
“We utilised a lot of energies trying to get Corentyne active. We have no club existing in that area. We were asking the folks in New Amsterdam to reach out to them. (However) the AAG really needs to reach out further and do a little more work especially in that area.” Hutson concluded.