Guyana to host 2022 CARIFTA Games
FLASHBACK! From left, Colonel Paul Arthur (LOC member), NACAC president Mike Sands, AAG president Aubrey Hutson, NACAC general secretary Keith Joseph and Mayfield Taylor-Trim (LOC member) during the NACAC team's visit to Guyana in January. (Carl Croker photo)
FLASHBACK! From left, Colonel Paul Arthur (LOC member), NACAC president Mike Sands, AAG president Aubrey Hutson, NACAC general secretary Keith Joseph and Mayfield Taylor-Trim (LOC member) during the NACAC team's visit to Guyana in January. (Carl Croker photo)

… Hutson calls 2021 games cancellation ‘a blessing in disguise’

By Rawle Toney

WITH this year’s CARIFTA Games being cancelled by North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association, Guyana’s hosting of the 50th edition will now be shifted to 2022.

The 49th edition of the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) Games would have been held April 10-13 in Bermuda, but, due to the Caribbean, like the rest of the world battling the COVID-19 pandemic, the organisers had to move the event to 2021; the same year that was designated for Guyana to host one of the most prestigious youth track and field events in the world.

In an exclusive interview with Chronicle Sport, president of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), Aubrey Hutson, noted that the move can be seen as a blessing in disguise for his local organising committee, especially taking the country’s current political climate into consideration.

Hutson related that on April 9 via an online meeting amongst the executives of the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association, the custodians of the CARIFTA Games, unanimously agreed that the COVID-19 virus has placed everyone at a disadvantage.

“Ironically, this is going to give Guyana an opportunity to showcase our ability to host these games at a level that is expected from us; it is going to be the 50th year of the CARIFTA Games, so for me it is better for us to agree to that position (hosting it in 2022),” Hutson said.

The AAG president further noted, “…also, with the current political situation in Guyana and the global economic crisis that is taking place, it gives our sponsors as well a little more elbow room, for the stabilisation of the world’s economies to understand where Guyana is as a player in the global market and how effective sponsoring CARIFTA 2022 can have on their businesses.”

President of the North and Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Track and Field Association, Mike Sands, in a statement, said his Association also took into account the impact on government and private sector plans and budgets for 2020 and perhaps, beyond, as well as the uncertainty in respect of the re-convening of international travel.

Sands highlighted that the closure of schools and sports facilities thereby impacting athletes’ ability to train and adequately prepare for a delayed edition of the CARIFTA Games in 2020 along with delayed examinations for students at the pre-College stage of their careers

World Athletics has already announced the postponement and/or cancellation of several of its own competitions for 2020, including the World Junior (U-20) Championships, with Sands relating that “the Executive therefore agreed to have me, in my capacity as president, to engage in discussions with our member federation in Bermuda, the government of Bermuda, the National Olympic Committee (the local representative of Pan Am Sports) as well as sponsors of the Games of 2020, to ascertain their thinking in respect of the postponement of the Games to Easter of 2021.”

Sands, who along with NACAC General Secretary Keith Joseph had visited Guyana in January, reminded that discussions had begun with all stakeholders in Guyana, craving their understanding and support, given that Bermuda did nothing to lose the annual event and is therefore deserving of being given the opportunity to make good on its commitment, albeit, one year later.

“The NACAC executive believes that our decision is in the best collective interest of our CARIFTA family and allows us all an opportunity to support both Bermuda and Guyana in the face of these most trying times.

“We have an excellent opportunity to work more deliberately together, to show to the world that our annual CARFITA Games is indeed, the very best junior track and field competition, globally.”

Guyana is a founding-member of CARIFTA, and in 1972, the games were initiated to mark the Caribbean Free Trade Association’s transition to CARICOM.

The 2017 CARIFTA Games will go down as one of the country’s most memorable outings, given the fact that they were able to bag eight medals – four gold, three bronze and one silver.

It was at the 46th edition of the games, hosted in Curacao, where Linden’s Compton Caesar created history, by winning Guyana’s first-ever gold medal in the 100m at the event.

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