… Team to return home today

THE second edition of the South American Youth Games wrapped up in Santiago, Chile, with Guyana securing four medals, all in the discipline of athletics.
Fifteen athletes represented Guyana in track and field, badminton, table tennis and 3X3 basketball at the September 29 – October 8 multi-sport event, organised by the Organisación Deportiva Suramericana (ODESUR), held every four years consistent with the current Olympic Games format. The age limit of the athletes is 14 to 18 years.

At the first edition which was held in Lima, Peru, in 2013, Guyana finished with seven medals – one silver and six bronze – but this time around, thanks to third former Mackenzie High School (MHS) Deshanna Skeete, Guyana won gold in the Girls 400m.
Skeete clocked 57.28 secs to win ahead of Brazil’s Jessica Moreira who ran 57.54 seconds, while Ecuador’s Andreina Valencia (58.81 seconds) had to settle for third.
Kenisha Phillips showed why she’s one of Guyana’s upcoming sprinters. After returning from a hamstring injury she suffered during the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Bahamas this year, she won silver in the 100m and 200m in Santiago.
It was also a close finish for Phillips in the women’s 100m with Colombia’s Angie Echeverria winning in a ‘photo-finish’, running 12.14, as compared to the Guyanese time of 12.18 seconds. In the 200m, she ran 24.40 seconds, behind Echeverria who copped gold in 24.33 secs.

Jermaine King, the 6’5” teenager from Berbice will return home with silver, having finished second in the 100m. Paraguay’s Fabrizio Aquino finished first with 10.92 secs, ‘edging’ Guyana’s king at the line, as he registered 10.963 secs for silver while Colombia’s Gian Mosquera placed third in a time of 10.966 secs.
In the 200m, he just missed the podium, placing 4th (22.11 secs) behind Brazilian Lucas Vilar (22.02 secs). Colombians Sebastian Berrueco (22.07 secs) and Gian Carlos Mosquera (22.09 secs) finished second and third respectively.
Prior to the great showing on the track, the Guyana National Anthem was not heard in Santiago, since the other representatives were either knocked out in the quarterfinals or preliminary stage of their respective events – except for the case of Boxing where our fighters were deemed ‘ineligible’ to participate.

Guyanese boxers Keevin Allicock and Christopher Moore were deemed ‘too experienced’ and were knocked out of the competition without throwing a single punch. A protest against a change in age requirement, without prior notification, was turned down.
Commonwealth Youth Games silver medallist Allicock was originally scheduled to be in the 50kg to 52 kg (flyweight) category, while Moore was placed in the 60kg to 63kg men’s (lightweight) division. Both boxers left Guyana with high hopes, as did their supporters. However, it was not to be.
According to a report issued from the Guyana contingent’s Chef-de-Mission, Godfrey Munroe, it was not until a technical meeting that boxing coach Terrence Poole was surprisingly informed that an age change rendered the two boxers ineligible to participate – a change that Guyana was never notified about, prior to leaving the country.