ATHLETICS Association of Guyana (AAG) president Aubrey Hutson says he takes pride in what Guyana was able to accomplish over the weekend – to successfully host the South American Junior Championships. He is particularly encouraged by the large turnout that witnessed the competition.
“I’ve gone to a lot of South American Championships and the kind of crowd enthusiasm that we saw last weekend, I can’t remember experiencing it. I think they would have all left quite happy with what they would have seen,” he noted.
“We had some people saying, ‘Could we do it? Are you sure we could?’ Well I think at the end we pulled out every stop to have the best possible championships that we could have had at such short notice.”
Guyana had just under three months to prepare for the Championships after it got the nod to host from the South American Athletics Confederation. The country was able to overcome the hurdles, however, and witness Guyana’s largest athletics meet turnout which led to the country’s success.
“I think we have really and truly made Guyana proud in pulling off a Championships, almost like we would have never seen in South America before, even with our limited experience, and limited personnel,” Hutson expressed.

Like many, Hutson was particularly happy with Guyana’s medal take, after in one hosting Guyana more than tripled our medal take in the entire history of the Championships.
Over the years Guyana had only collected eight medals at the event, but last weekend we ended with a total of 25 medals and also finished second place in the point standings.
“What I experienced over last weekend is a feeling, since I became president that I longed for; to watch Guyanese athletes cross the finish line in first place. I think what happened last weekend is a result of the drive to develop these athletes and hence we get the reward. The coaches have been doing a tremendous job,” Hutson expressed.
Three of Guyana’s medals were gold, and the country was fifth in the medals table. A chance for a fourth gold slipped past Guyana after the Boys 4x400m team was disqualified for a baton-passing infringement.
However, this achievement did not come cheap, Hutson says the final price tag rests somewhere in the vicinity of $32M-$33M, and all the bills have not yet been paid. Hutson did not shy away from admitting that there were shortcomings, however.
“Are there things we could do better? Sure, but I think we did the best that we could have possibly done under the circumstances. Time was our biggest enemy in this project. The venue not being fully equipped for a Championship of this magnitude played a role in our inability to move smoothly.
“Also I don’t think we have all the marketing and sales personnel within our council to really market. What we generally needed was more time to advertise, more time to contact sponsors, to push to get more sponsors on board,” he related.
But that is by no means dampening the AAG from looking forward to hosting more international meets. Hutson enthusiastically shared that the body will be looking to possibly bring the 2020 CARIFTA here, with the 2018 and 2019 hosting already spoken for.