As Guyana’s representatives to the Tokyo Olympic games begin to arrive in Japan, the country’s Chef De Mission of the delegation, Garfield Wiltshire, is encouraging them to give their best.
Table Tennis star, Chelsea Edghill and boxer, Keevin Allicock, will be joined by track athletes, Aliyah (400m) and Jasmine Abrams (100m) and Emanuel Archibald (100m), along with swimmers Aleka Persaud and Andrew Fowler, as the athletes suiting up for Guyana at the 32nd Olympiad.
Wiltshire is hoping that the Guyanese athletes “compete to the best of their abilities, achieve personal bests and if that result in any medals then that would be excellent.” Michael Parris’ 1980 Moscow Games bronze medal accomplishment in the sport of boxing remains Guyana’s lone medal at the Olympics. Meanwhile, it is being reported that games organizers are searching for ways to deal with a rising number of athletes and officials who are testing positive upon arrival in Japan.
South Africa’s football governing body said, on Sunday, two of its men’s team members based in the Olympic Village and a technical staff member had tested positive and were being isolated.
Also testing positive after arrival was International Olympic Committee member Ryu Seung-min from South Korea, Games organizers said.
The British Olympic Association also confirmed that six athletes and two staff members from its track and field team were identified as close contacts of an individual—not from the Team GB delegation—who tested positive following their arrival in Tokyo on Friday.
The British delegation members have continued to test negative and are in self-isolation in their rooms at the team’s camp. In all, 55 persons connected to the Olympics, including officials and contractors working on the Summer Games, have tested positive since July 1, according to data from the organizers. Wiltshire said he’s “extremely worried with all the reports coming out from Japan with regards to the increase in cases and the lockdowns in numerous places…and the desire of the Japanese population that they’re no longer comfortable or want the games to occur now.”
Boxer Keevin Allicock is on his way to Tokyo where he will touch gloves with the world’s best featherweights on July 24 when the boxing competition gets going. Edghill will also be in action on July 24 when the women’s singles table tennis serves off; so too will swimmers Persaud and Fowler.
Track athletes, Archibald and the Abrams siblings, will take to the starting blocks on July 30 at Japan’s National Stadium for the qualifying rounds of the 100 and 400 metres.
