… We underestimated the magnitude of work– Hutson

AS the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) looks forward to hosting the biggest meet to ever touch Guyana’s shores, president of the association, Aubrey Hutson, is saying that fans and supporters can expect an excitement-filled day, even as he admits that the event turned

out to be more challenging than expected.
Over the past few days, teams and officials from all across South America arrived in Guyana to participate in the South American Youth Championships, which will be held at the Leonora Track and Field Facility.

While teams from Suriname, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, spent the day training at the country’s lone synthetic track, Hutson and his team were busy putting in some extra work logistically.
“It’s a new experience for us and we’re learning as we go along, but I can assure that fans are going to be thrilled tomorrow (today) with the kind of competition that they are going to see,” Hutson told Chronicle Sport.
Hutson cited lack of personnel as one of the many challenges facing the Organising Committee, while pointing to cutbacks that had to be made because of tight funding.
“You find that the few people who are working really have to double up and work long nights. So it’s taking its toll on us, but our goal is to provide good competition for our fans, and create a nice atmosphere for our athletes to compete,” Hutson said.

The AAG president continued. “We underestimated the magnitude of work that had to be done and as a result of that we are realising that there are a lot of areas that we did not touch on that are showing up now at the late moment. And having to cover those areas we are really running a little bit ragged, but there’s nothing to be scared about, I think we’ve got it covered.”

“I guess come Sunday night that’s when everyone is going to breathe a sigh of relief that Guyana was able to successfully do this and prove Guyana is a force to be reckoned with in hosting these competitions in Guyana,” Hutson optimistically predicted.
Hutson noted that the language barrier was another challenge, as many of the travelling teams missed crucial deadlines and put an added strain on the organisers’ already limited capacity.
Guyana is the only English-speaking country in South America. That may have created some problems in the paperwork distributed to the countries who spoke Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch.

However, Hutson said things are looking even better and he believes they are as prepared as they could be.
For the duration of the Games the teams will be housed at the Princess Hotel.
Hutson added, “I am not going to be naïve and say that every Guyanese athlete is going to get a gold medal but it will give them a true opportunity to test their potential and they should use it to the best of their ability and don’t let any defeat be looked at negatively, but instead understand what more they need to get to the top.”