HAVING recently been awarded the National Sports Commission’s (NSC) Persons with Disabilities (PWD) Sportswoman-of-the-Year 2017, 14-year-old athlete Faith King will receive the backing of the NSC, should she qualify for the 2019 Special Olympics to be hosted in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) from March 14 to 21.

Chronicle Sport was able to confirm NSC’s support from Director of Sport, Christopher Jones. Jones pointed out that once King is selected to participate at the Special Olympics in the UAE, the NSC will offer whatever assistance it can. However, he noted that the final decision rests with the NSC Board.

Meanwhile, when contacted by this publication, National Director of Special Olympics Guyana (SOG) Wilton Spencer revealed that since October of last year, following the Special Schools Athletics championships, King was placed on a shortlist with five other special athletes.

It has not been confirmed as yet whether or not King will be on the flight to the UAE next year.
However, while the decision is pending, King remains in training. Her three events are the 4x100m, 400m and 200m races.

King received her 2017 PWD Sports Award from Jones on Friday for her outstanding performance over the last year.
The Special Olympics is the world’s largest sports organisation for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing year-round training and competitions to five million athletes and Unified States Sports partners in 172 countries.

The Games will feature seven days of competition in 24 sports. There will be court sports – badminton, basketball, beach volleyball, bocce, handball, table tennis, tennis and volleyball; races – athletics, cycling, kayaking, open water swimming, roller-skating, sailing, swimming and triathlon; judged competitions – equestrian, judo, artistic gymnasts and rhythmic gymnastics.

Rounding out the list of sports are bowling, football, golf and powerlifting.