President of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), Aubrey Hutson, has appealed to the government and the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) for funding to send a formidable team to the Senior South American Athletic Championships in Ecuador.
Hutson said yesterday he hopes to send at least 10 of the nation’s best athletes to the event, an Olympic Qualifier, which will be staged from May 29-31.
Hutson also reached out to the Guyana Defence Force. “Quite a few of the athletes are from the Guyana Defence Force and we thought it prudent to write them as well,” said Hutson.
“So far, we have gotten feedback from the Guyana Olympic Association, and I think they are meeting tonight [Thursday] to decide how many athletes they will look at, but from my preliminary discussions, they should be looking at the top four,” Hutson said.
The association had short-listed 12 athletes for the event which was initially scheduled for May 14-16 in Argentina but was moved to due to a spike in COVID-19 cases there.
The short-listed athletes include, Winston George, Quamel Prince, Jeremy Bascombe, Emanuel Archibald, Akeem Stewart, Arinze Chance, Devaughn Barrington, Andrea Foster, Aliyah Abrams, Jasmine Abrams, Jenea McCammon, and Mark Jhalu.
Hutson head further stated, “This is a game of reality and athletes must know to themselves where they are and understand that this is a major investment from the Athletics Association of Guyana to get them to Tokyo.”
He pointed out that the association must send athletes who stand the best chance of qualifying for the Tokyo Games based on their present form.
“Some of them when we look at their international ranking and there is some question mark as to where they are now at this time in the preparation for those events, but we continue to be very optimistic in listening to them about what they think they can do but reality check needs to take place and based on funding I would like to see at least 10 of those athletes going.”
The AAG hope is for at least six athletes to qualify for the Olympic Games this summer. That would be an improvement on the four at the 2016 RIO Games, and he noted, “I believe in growth and if we sent four before, and we send less this year, it does not augur well for my tenure as President of the AAG. So, I am looking for growth and I am looking for at least one of them to be in the finals.”
The South American Championships was last held in Lima, Peru, in May 2019, with Guyana being represented by Barrington, Stewart, Archibald, George, McCammon and Leslain Baird. Robert Chisholm served as coach.
