THE country’s top athletes will converge at the Leonora Track and Field Facility for the National Schools Track and Field Championships, which will be held from November 26 – December 1. It will be the first time that the event is being held at the $1.084B facility which was opened in 2015.

The logistics and other details of the championships is not yet known. This year’s National Schools Championships is expected to be a ‘farewell’ hosting, as the organisers are preparing to change the current format which will see the secondary school level competition being held in March during the Easter term.

With this change, as of 2018, the Championships will see a separate hosting of the primary school level competition, which will continue to be held during the Christmas term.

In addition to the splitting up and moving of the secondary schools competition, neither of these competitions will involve a teachers’ championships segment, as was the norm.

Head of the Physical Education at the Unit of Allied Arts, Nicholas Fraser, stated that the changes come as the organisers look to begin taking into consideration some of the recommendations made in a proposal submitted following the ‘Forum on the Development of the National Schools Championships in Guyana’ held at the National Centre for Education Resource Development (NCERD) in January, 2015.

This event involves athletes from all across Guyana, grouped into 15 districts competing in athletics, cycling and swimming.

The National Schools Championships is organised by the Ministry of Education and the Guyana Teachers Union.

Upper Demerara/Kwakwani holds the most overall titles (15), having won last year’s championship which was hosted at the Guyana National Stadium.