– Pompey anticipates ‘big’ 2021event; to be used as gateway to Tokyo Olympic Games

By Rawle Toney

DESPITE not having a definitive date for next year’s AP Invitation, Aliann Pompey told Chronicle Sport that she’s hoping to have the regional track and field showpiece held before the July 23 – August 3 Tokyo Olympic Games.

The AP Invitational, which ran off its inaugural event in 2016, is seen as a gateway to Olympic qualification, with 11 athletes, all from overseas, from the first event, moving on to compete at the Olympic Games in Rio.

Pompey, Guyana’s Commonwealth Games 400M gold and silver medallist, saw her fifth edition of the AP Invitational, like everything else this year, cancelled because of the Coronavirus.

However, the St John’s University coach revealed that her organising committee is awaiting some vital information before announcing a new date for the event in 2021.

“We don’t have a specific date for the API in 2021 as yet. We’re just awaiting some more information so we can finalise the date, but it would be sometime before the Olympics to give, not just the Guyanese athletes but the athletes within the Region and the athletes who come to the meet with a chance of possibly qualifying for the games,” Pompey said.

In February, AP Invitational was announced by World Athletics as part of their structured World Athletics Continental Tour.

World Athletics had stated that the impetus for creating the Continental Tour was to provide more competition and earning opportunities for more athletes.

“Everyone who would’ve supported the competition in the past, to a larger extent, committed to supporting it in 2021 which would enable it to once again be on the World Athletics Continental Tour which is tremendously prestigious. That is something that we could not have done with our supporters, both financially and in kind,” the Guyanese standout track and field star said.

The AP Invitational will be one of two events that will be held in South America on the World Athletics Continental tour; the other – the Brazil Grand Prix.

Meanwhile, asked about Government’s support, Pompey added that she has spoken to Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson Jr, and while she was tightlipped about the details of the discussion, she told Chronicle Sport that she’s optimistic of a bigger 2020 AP Invitational.

Pompey pointed to the fact the AP Invitational “aligns very much so with our Government’s commitment to increasing opportunity for our young people using sports, as well as regionally.”

“I’m confident and hopeful that the situation with COVID-19 next year presents itself in such a way that we can say safely, for everyone’s sake, host the meet in a manner that doesn’t exacerbate the situation with the pandemic,” said Pompey.

At the 2018 AP Invitational, Kirani James, the 2012 Olympic Champion and 2016 Olympic silver medallist, clocked 44.99 seconds to not only win the ‘AP’ Invitational 400 metres, but also set a new ‘Track Record’.