ALIANN Pompey yesterday announced that her fifth ‘AP’ Invitational Track and Field event will now be held on June 18, 2022, at the National Track and Field Centre, Leonora.

This comes after the event which was set to be hosted on June 19 this year had to be cancelled, citing the effects of the global pandemic, caused by the coronavirus and the non-approval from Guyana’s COVID-19 Task Force.

“All of our previous sponsors have already committed to the event,” Pompey said in an invited comment. “We’re looking forward to welcoming the fans and the international, as well as local athletes, to the Leonora Stadium, on June 18, 2022.”

The four-time Olympian and Guyana’s Commonwealth Games 400m gold and silver medallist, saw the event, which started in 2016, like most sport events in 2020, postponed because of COVID-19.

This year’s AP Invitational was seen as the ‘gateway to Tokyo’, since it was scheduled to be the last opportunity for local, regional and international athletes who were seeking qualification to the July 23-August 3 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
The inaugural AP Invitational saw 11 athletes, all from overseas, qualify for the Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil.

The St John’s University coach noted the event’s cancellation not only affected local athletes with Olympic aspirations, but also those from the Americas and the Caribbean, since many would have had the AP Invitational on their calendar as a qualifying event for Tokyo.

In February of 2020, AP Invitational was announced by World Athletics as part of its 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.

At the 2018 AP Invitational, Kirani James, the 2012 Olympic champion, 2016 Olympic silver medallist and 2020 bronze medallist, clocked 44.99 seconds to not only win the ‘AP’ Invitational 400 metres, but also set a new track record’.