AAG, Guyana not prepared for success in Athletics -Hutson
Daniel Williams, Chantoba Bright and Campton Caesar
Daniel Williams, Chantoba Bright and Campton Caesar

… Continuous investment needed to facilitate growth

FOLLOWING the outstanding performance by Guyana’s junior athletes in track and field, president of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) Aubrey Hutson admitted that his administration along with the entire Guyana was caught off-guard.

Hutson made the revelation on NCN’s Vybz 100.1 FM show Sports Vybz, hosted by Rawle Toney, and was responding to the question of the AAG being prepared for Guyana’s continuous rise in the sport, particularly at the youth level in the Caribbean and South America.

“The success in athletics, Guyana is not prepared for it and I must say that the athletes are ahead of us right now and we are basically playing catch-up,” said the long-serving AAG president, adding, “We would’ve invested heavily in our programmes and athletics has really made a big leap on us and the administration of athletics I don’t think has fully grasped what has happened.”

(L-R) Anfernee Headecker, Deshanna Skeete, and Claudrice McKoy

Guyana’s progression actually started in 2016, when Daniel Williams, competing at the 23rd South American Youth Championships in Concordia, Argentina, November 12-13, finished as the only athlete at the games to finish with three medals, having placed third in the 200m (22.11 seconds), second in the 400m (48.57 seconds) and second in the high jump (two metres).

At the same event, Chantoba Bright leaped 5.94 metres to bring home bronze and Tyrell Peters clocked 10.68 seconds to claim second in the 100m.
Five months later, at the 2017 CARIFTA Games in Curacao, Guyana finished with an unprecedented eight medals overall, which included Compton Caesar’s historic gold in the Boys’ U-20 100m where he crossed the line at a time of 10.46 seconds to claim the ‘blue ribbon event’.

It was the first time in the 45-year-old games that Guyana had won gold in the 100m, and Caesar also went on to win bronze in the 200m.
Natricia Hooper (U-20) and Chantoba Bright’s (U-18) gold medal in the triple jump also highlighted Guyana’s showing at the games, while Claudrice McKoy (bronze 1500m) and Anfernee Headecker (1500m silver) also contributed to Guyana’s outstanding performance.
Guyana for the first time hosted the 2017 South American U-20 Championships in Athletics, June 3-4, at the Leonora Track and Field Facility, which saw the participation of nine countries in South America.

The Land of Many Waters finished fifth with a total of 25 medals, inclusive of three gold medals, which came from Caesar in the 100m (10.37 seconds), Bright in the long jump (6.30 metres) and the Girls’ 4x400m relay team (Avon Samuels, Tandika Haynes, Kenisha Phillips and Joanna Archer).
As if that wasn’t enough, Williams then shocked the world when he ran a new Personal Best (46.72 seconds) to place second in the 400m in Nairobi Kenya, to claim Guyana’s first and only medal at the IAAF World U-18 Championships in Athletics (Kadecia Baird won silver at the 2012 IAAF World U20 Championships in Athletics).

Deshanna Skeete also made history when she won gold in the Girls’ 400m in Santiago, Chile, at the South American Youth Games, and Winston George, currently Guyana’s most recognisable senior athlete, won gold in the 400m at the 2017 Senior South American Championships in Athletics.

It was also George’s first gold medal at the major international event in his career.
Looking ahead, Hutson indicated, “What we’re doing now is not trying to contain, but being more prepared to deal with it in 2018 and it’s going to cost a lot of money and they are creditors out there that we still owe and we know that our athletes are going to take us places and the sponsors will come on board.”

“In the very near future, like Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the Bahamas, where our administration and athletes will be on the same page, the key is investing. We’ve really invested a lot in our athletes and now they’re responding, especially people like Compton (Caesar) who is now transitioning from juniors to seniors,” said Hutson.

Hutson, whose involvement in the sport stretches way before his days as president, insisted that Guyana has never seen this wave of talent, especially competing on the international scene, with the athletes being locally based. He pointed out that “we’ve never had this. In the recent past, we’ve never had these kind of athletes.
The playing field is changing and we have to get our acts together and talk to our sponsors.”

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