… Garfield Wiltshire named Chef de-Mission of Team Guyana

SEVEN athletes, five coaches and four officials will form Guyana’s delegation to the Olympic Games in Tokyo from July 23 to August 8.
The contingent comprises mainly regular faces in national colours, with the newest addition being COVID-19 Liaison Officer/Physiotherapist, Angelica Holder.
Treasurer of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) Garfield Wiltshire has been designed Chef-de-Mission of Team Guyana and four-time Olympian Aliann Pompey will travel as the Athlete Representative at the Games.

In May, Wiltshire indicated that the National Olympic appointees who will attend the Olympics are now mandated to have a COVID-19 Officer, and in consultation with the Guyana Physiotherapy Association they have identified Angelica Holder to perform the dual role.
Speaking during a press conference at GOA’s headquarters in Liliendaal, Holder said, “Everyone travelling to Tokyo will be undergoing daily testing, twice a day. I would have to report on the current status of everyone – coaches, officials and athletes – including myself, on whether negative or positive results have been submitted.”

She added, “I would also have to make arrangements with Tokyo if we have any persons testing positive, to get them isolated or get them to the hospital if symptoms are present. Luckily, I’m also a physiotherapist who worked in the COVID-19 unit so I can also handle any severe respiratory distress.”
As part of the COVID-19 measures implemented by Games’ organisers, Holder revealed all members of a delegation are required to download two Apps – Ocha and Cocoa.

The Ocha App is basically a health reporting App they will use to report their status every day and when they arrive in Tokyo, they will have to download the Cocoa App that everyone in the Olympic Village will be using via Bluetooth.”
The Cocoa App will record positive COVID-19 cases within the Olympic Village and notify persons who have been in close proximity to immediately isolate.

Two members of the swimming delegation, swimmer, Aleka Persaud and coach Shyka Gonsalves will depart Guyana today, to meet Andrew Fowler for a camp in Tokyo from July 13 to 19.
Other members of the delegation will leave at various times in the week, to arrive for the opening ceremony on July 23.
Wiltshire indicated that the team has to be tested 96 and 72 fours before arrival into Tokyo and they thanked Eureka Medical Labs for providing the two Tests free of charge to the eight members in Guyana.

Guyana’s Delegation: Garfield Wiltshire (Chef-de-Mission), Angelica Holder (COVID Liaison Officer/Physiotherapist), Deion Nurse (Secretary-General), Aliann Pompey (Athlete Representative), Julian Edmonds (Athletics manager/coach), Denzel Abrams (Athletics coach), Idi Lewis (Table Tennis coach), Sebert Blake (Boxing coach), Shyka Gonsalves (Swimming coach), Aliyah Abrams (athlete) Women’s 400m, Jasmine Abrams (athlete) Women’s 100m, Emanuel Archibald (athlete) Men’s 100m, Chelsea Edghill (athlete) Women’s Table Tennis, Keevin Allicock (athlete) 52-57kg Boxing, Aleka Persaud (athlete) 50m Freestyle and Andrew Fowler (athlete) 100m Freestyle.