Emanuel Archibald will be the seventh athlete from Linden at the Olympic Games

EMANUEL Archibald will compete in the Men’s 100m on Saturday, July 31 at the Tokyo Olympics and his presence alone in Japan puts him in elite company with athletes from the Region 10 community. Cyclist James ‘Joelyn’ Joseph and featherweight boxer, Dansford Brown, were the first Lindeners to compete at the Olympics, doing so at the 1980 Games in Moscow. In fact, Joseph also competed at the 1884 Games in Los Angeles, California.
In Russia, Joseph was exceptional to reach the third repechage (Heat 2) in the Men’s sprint event, while in 1984, his participation ended in the first repechage final 1.
Brown became the first boxer from Linden as part of the four-man team in Moscow for Guyana, alongside Michael Parris (bantamweight), Alfred Thomas (middleweight) and Barrington Cambridge (light-welterweight).

Brown reached the round-of-16 in his division but was stopped by Luis Pizarro of Puerto Rico.
Parris went on to the semi-finals in the Bantamweight category. Despite losing, Parris, as per boxing rules, picked up bronze. His accomplishment today stands as Guyana’s lone Olympic medal.
Meanwhile, at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Mark Mason, Guyana’s former long jump record-holder and distance athlete Desmond Hector were part of the country’s contingent in Spain.
Mason was the last Guyanese athlete to compete in the men’s long jump at an Olympics, finishing 15th out of 53 athletes. That event was won by USA’s Carl Lewis.
Mason’s long jump record of 8.07 metres, which he had set in April of 1993, was ironically broken by Archibald on March 7, 2019 at a meet in Jamaica, after the now Malta Carib athlete had leaped 8.08 metres. Archibald on May 11, 2019, reset the National long jump record to 8.12 metres.

Hector clocked one minute 51.43 seconds in Heat Seven of the men’s 800m. He did not advance to the final.
Marian Burnett made her first of two appearances at Olympics at the 2004 Athens Games, along with Onan Thom.
Burnett clocked two minutes 02.12 seconds to finish fourth in Heat One and advance to the semi-finals of the women’s 800m. In the semis, Burnett’s time of two minutes 02.21 seconds was not enough to reach the finals. When Thom entered the pool in Greece in the Men’s 100m freestyle, he became the first swimmer from Guyana to feature at the Olympic Games.
Meanwhile, Burnett, who also holds the 800m National record (one minute 59.47 seconds) made her second Olympics appearance at the 2008 Games in China. She ran two minutes 02.02 seconds.