President of the Guyana Olympic Association, K. A. Juman-Yassin, earlier today extended financial support to the team attending the South American Youth Championship scheduled for Concordia, Argentina from November 12 – 14.
At a simple presentation ceremony held at the Olympic House, Yassin handed over the cheque to the team’s manager Mayfield Taylor-Trim and took the opportunity to offer words of encouragement to the team which will depart on Wednesday.
“I want to complement Mr. Hutson and his executives for sending such a team, and I want to wish them all the best. I would like to urge the athletes to do all their best,” Yassin said.
The athletes on the team are Daniel Williams, Tyrell Peters, Kenisha Phillips and Chantoba Bright, who are being accompanied by Coach Johnny Greavesande.
President of the Athletic Association of Guyana (AAG), Aubrey Hutson was also present at the ceremony, and spoke of how the valuable exposure that the athletes will gain from their experience. This will go a long way in help them as they build on their athletic career.
According to Hutson, “these athletes that are going now are athletes that we try to expose a lot; we’re trying to increase on their experience”
The AAG boss added that “the budget is over $3 million to get these athletes out there, but this is what the AAG is trying to do to expose our athletes to international competition, so that when they get to the right age they wouldn’t be short of exposure and be intimidated by the level of competition.”
Phillips and Peters, were also present at yesterday’s conference and pledged to do their best as they go out to represent their country. Peters, who will be in the boy’s 400m and high jump, was particularly passionate in his vow to go out and represent Guyana to the best of his abilities.
Being in the boys’ 400m, Peter can only hope that he can emulate the performance of Guyana’s Jason Yaw, who set the record in the race when the biennial Championships was last held in 2014, in Colombia. In that year Natricia Hooper also won silver in the girls 400m.
At this year’s event, Phillips will be performing in the girls’ 100m and 400m, CARIFTA Games silver medalist Bright will be in the girls’ triple jump and long jump, while Daniel Williams will be in the 100m and 200m.
All four of the athletes were a part of the Guyana team at the CARIFTA Games earlier this year and most recently, were all apart of the athletics team that represented Guyana at the Inter-Guiana Games against athletes from Suriname.
