THE Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) believes the near future looks bright for the sport.
Coming off their win as Sport Association of the Year 2023 at the National Sports Commission awards, President Aubrey Hutson believes that there are big things in store for the sport, locally and regionally.
He said, “We have Malachi Austin, one of the good junior athletes, who is looking to do good in the future. Also, Tianna Springer; she has been a great campaigner at the junior level. So, we are hoping she can transition; we have quite a few athletes in the college system, Aliya Moore and others, Shantae George, who we think can really and thoroughly transition well, going into seniors, so the future looks bright.”

The Association’s ultimate goal is to get its best team into the next Olympic games, and to battle for the country’s first gold medal.
The athletics administrator, however, expressed some concern about the junior ranks, saying, “We have a little gap in our junior programme, because, when you look past those athletes, while we may have the Kaydon Persauds and them coming, you don’t have that a lot more, so we are hoping and working with the Ministry of Education’s schools’ national programme, which is the feeder for youth and junior athletics, and work with the athletes to fashion their programme.”

The AAG’s proposed schedule, which is awaiting approval and rectification by the executive council, is likely to start with a development meet on January 18, followed by Guyana being represented in Brazil at the South American Cross Country.
Two more development meets will follow before their first major international meet, the South American Indoor Championship in Bolivia at the end of February.

“We just recently sat with some of the key coaches and ironed out our calendar; it’s a bit late, but it is as a result of the little internal turmoil within the AAG and its executive, and it’s trying to put that together now to ensure that athletics continue. That was our major focus. We are looking at CARIFTA;

that is one of our strong events that we want to go and get some indication, based on what happens there, on how our future looks, because most of the athletes that do well at CARIFTA we hope will do well to go on to the senior level,” Hutson said.

He says that the NSC award victory for 2023 was indicative of the progress they have made as an association, despite challenges, and the success they have brought in overseas competitions.