YESTERDAY, July 24, marked one year before the world’s largest sporting event, the Olympic Games, gets going in Tokyo, Japan, and president of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), Aubrey Hutson, said plans are afoot to ensure that those ‘hopefuls’ receive support and are given the best chance of qualifying.

Daniel Williams (200m), Arinze Chance (400m), Brenessa Thompson (100m and 200m), Aliyah Abrams (400m) and Emmanuel Archibald (Long Jump) are just some of the names flaunted by the AAG boss during an inclusive interview with Chronicle Sport yesterday, when asked about what’s in place to help Guyana to secure that elusive medal in track and field, and which will add to the country’s lone medal (bronze) won by Michael Paris in the sport of boxing at the 1980 Olympics.

The 2020 Olympic Games, also being referred to as the ‘Games of the XXXII Olympiad’ currently rest as a figment of our athletes’ imagination, given the fact that none of them has made the qualifying standard times and distances set by Track and Field’s global governing body, the IAAF.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in May this year released the standards that some track and field pundits are calling “the hardest ever”, giving athletes two ways of reaching Tokyo; achieve the entry standard within the qualification period (May – June 29, 2019 and January 2019 – May 2020 for Marathon/50km), or qualify by virtue of his/her IAAF World Ranking position in the selected event at the end of the respective qualification period.

According to reports, the process is designed to achieve about 50 percent of the target numbers for each event through entry standards and the remaining 50 percent through the IAAF world ranking system.

“I’m confident,” Hutson noted, “I’m also very hopeful for some of the athletes to do well later this season, especially those athletes who are doing well, like Chance, Archibald, and even Daniel (Williams) locally. For the females, Thompson, Abrams and with some tweaking, I think Kenisha Phillips (100m and 200m) can turn things around.”

Despite the athletes mentioned by the AAG president having a sensational season, some even clocking their personal best (PB) in their respective events, they are yet to at least reach the qualifying standard for the IAAF World Championships in Athletics, set for September 27 – October 6 in Doha, Qatar.

Hutson said the AAG will attempt to give Guyanese athletes, especially the aforementioned, a chance to compete at several South American events sanctioned by CONSUDATLE, in an attempt to see them qualifying.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT
The issue of financial support for the country’s leading athletes will continue to be a burning issue, especially in the absence of a National Sports Policy.

“We have to pick up the slack, because it’s very important,” Hutson related on the subject of financial support.

Hutson told Chronicle Sport that there are several programmes under the IOC’s Olympic Solidarity and the AAG will “push the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) to the reach out to the IOC for that extra funding. So, rest assured that we will make an application for that funding because it’s very important.”