FIFTEEN athletes, across five separate sport disciplines, will be representing Guyana, along with officials, at this year’s South American Youth Games, which will run from September 29 to October 8, in Santiago, Chile.

Of the 21 sports being contested at this year’s Games, Guyana will be represented in athletics, basketball, badminton, boxing, and table tennis. The team comprises five track and field athletes, four basketball players, while badminton, table tennis and boxing will each have two participants.
In athletics, Guyana will be represented by Kenisha Phillips (girls 100m, 200m), Annalisa Barclay (girls long and triple jumps), and Deshanna Skeete (girls 200m and 400m), while Jermaine King and Mark Solomon will both be in the boys 100m and 200m sprints. The athletics official will be Wanda Richmond.

The basketball team is made up of Akeem Crandon, Isaiah Hintzen, Nigel Bowen, and Shamar France. The badminton players are Priyanna Ramdhani and Tyrese Jeffrey.
The table tennis players are Miguel Wong and Nickolus Romain. The table tennis official will be coach Idi Lewis
For boxing, the coach will be Terrence Poole for Christopher Moore and Keevin Allicock, the same two promising boxers who represented Guyana at the Commonwealth Youth Games back in July. At that event, the boxers truly delivered, with Allicock prevailing as Guyana’s lone medallist, clinching a silver in the flyweight category.
Sixteen-year-old Moore will again compete in the lightweight category.
Approximately 1300 athletes from across 14 countries are expected to converge on Chile in the coming weeks to compete in the Games – the second hosting after its debut in 2013.
The regional multi-sport event is organised by the South American Sports Organisation (ODESUR).
At the 2013 hosting, Guyana had competed in seven disciplines, namely athletics, badminton, boxing, cycling, weightlifting, table tennis and swimming. Guyana finished with seven medals – a silver and six bronze.