GUYANA’S Chef de Mission at the Tokyo Olympics, Garfield Wiltshire, announced that table tennis player Chelsea Edghill and swimmer Andrew Fowler will be the two Flag Bearers at today’s opening of the 32nd Olympiad in Tokyo, Japan. National Olympic Committees were tasked with selecting one male and one female athlete to be their Flag Bearer, as part of a rule change made by the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) last March. According to the IOC, the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 will be the first gender-balanced Olympic Games in

history with 48.8 per cent women’s participation. Speaking with Chronicle Sport from the Athletes Village in Tokyo, Edghill said she’s “really happy to be the flag-bearer for Guyana, especially at the Olympic Games and I’m excited to carry the flag and share my Guyanese prize with the world. I think it’s unique with COVID and all, but an experience nonetheless and I’m happy to carry the flag at such an important stage.”

Edghill will be in action tomorrow in the Women’s Singles event, and will face Fiji’s Sally Yee. Fowler, on the other hand, will dive into the pool on July 27, in Heat 2 of the men’s 100 metres freestyle. Meanwhile, 15-year-old Aleka Persaud, the country’s youngest ever Olympian, will be in the pool on Friday July 30 in the women’s 50 metres freestyle.
Keevin Allicock, like Edghill, is set to face Alexy De la Cruz on Saturday, in match one of the men’s featherweight division.
Jasmine Abrams and Emanuel Archibald will take to the starting blocks in the women’s and men’s 100 metres on Friday, July 30, while Aliyah Abrams will make her second appearance at the Olympics in the women’s 400 metres on Tuesday, August 3.