– Shot Put champion and aspiring Olympian

“GROWING up in high school, I always found a love for football but there wasn’t a sport that my teacher could have named that I wasn’t competent in,” 28-year-old Osafo DosSantos recalled.

Even in his younger days, he knew without a doubt that he had a talent and he was determined to hone it. This talent, according to him, was his prowess in sports. And to this day, he has not let that prowess dwindle.

“Sport is my passion,” Dos Santos said. “I basically live and breathe sport.”

But though he could perform in every sport, he was more inclined to football, volleyball and the field events. While he kept these close to his heart, he eventually had to decide which ones were more important to him or which he could “make it big in”, as he says. That’s why he let go of football and after entering the University of Guyana (UG) more recently, volleyball.

He explained, “I had to choose one sport because of the intensity of training [required] and I chose field events.” And perhaps, that was his best bet because he has been performing better than he once even imagined- especially with the shot put.

Over the past few years, he highlighted that he has been the champion athlete for the inter-schools and inter-faculty championships. In 2017, for example, Dos Santos earned 33 points with wins in the Discus and Shotput; second in the Javelin and fourth in the High Jump at UG’s Inter-Faculty Athletics Championships. This attested to his prowess in the field events.

Osafo is also currently the Shot Put champion for Guyana after scoring his new personal best 15.85M at the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) National Senior Athletics Championships on June 23.

“It was really stiff competition,” he disclosed and added, “There were likes of persons from the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and the Guyana Police Force (GPF) and very strong athletes coming out from Linden- who are very competitive when it comes to field events.”

But even as National Champion, he isn’t satisfied. If nothing else describes Osafo, it would be the Tim Nokte quote that he embraces: “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”

And he is hoping that his daily training regime- training three times a day- coupled with his prowess, would ensure that he is well positioned to take part in the 2020 Olympics being held in Tokyo, Japan.

In the meantime, he is hoping to best the national shot put record which is held by Julion Sinclair at 17.20M and then make the 18M qualifying mark needed for the Olympics.

To this end, he attested that in training he is able to throw between 16.90M and 17M. And better yet, he is being trained by Sinclair, whose record he seeks to best, and South American silver medalist and National Record holder, Leslain Baird.

Baird especially has been a huge source of inspiration for Dos Santos; he has given different training sessions and mental talks to the shot putter. The shot put champion also related that Baird was also instrumental in deciding his training and nutrition plans. He is grateful to his coaches Mark Scott and Wilson and the “strong women” in his life: his mother, and UG members Lavern Fraser and Camille Robertson.

Aside from being a sportsman, September will mark 10 years since Dos Santos has been a teacher. He is a qualified English teacher and will also be receiving his Bachelor’s in English in November from UG.

As evidenced however, his mind is set on sports and he has been teaching Physical Education and Sport at Queen’s College.

But more than being a sportsperson or teaching sport, he also wants to learn the intricacies of sport- all in attempt to be the best. His recent acceptance into the premier sport institution in the Caribbean, the G.C. Foster college of Physical Education and Sport is yet another stepping stone for him on his Olympic journey, since he believes that the individualised training and exposure will be crucial to his development.

CHALLENGES
Despite all that is going well for him, Dos Santos bemoaned that field events aren’t given much importance in Guyana and that could hinder his journey and the journey of others like him.

“Field has been a sore area of neglect,” Dos Santos opined, “When you hear about Track and Field meets, people only focus on the track and not field.” Added to that, there are limited national events for field event athletes to participate in, according to him.

But to this end, he said, “Field event athletes are as equally equipped and prepared to make Guyana proud as these international meets.” He also reminded of the feats accomplished by Baird and Commonwealth Triple Jump gold medalist, Troy Doris.

With a lack of meets, Dos Santos stated that the potential of field event athletes are being limited and the athletes are not being given regional exposure to gauge external competition.

Despite all of this though, the aspiring Olympian remained optimistic that better will come and he will make the 2020 Olympics. And after that, he assured that his patriotism knows no bounds and he will give back to his country.

He shared that he wants to see the creation of a tertiary level curriculum at UG that will guide a programme for persons who are passionate about sport and pursuing the field.

Dos Santos noted that from being in the field, he knows that Guyana lacks the resource persons: those who are afforded the opportunity to learn overseas but do not contribute back home. But he strives to be different and stressed that he will bring back the knowledge he garnered from the G.C. Foster College.

But until then, his road to the Olympics beckons and he left a bit of advice for other persons: “We run away with the perception that our talents should take us places, but it is our hard work that pushes us beyond.”