By Rawle Toney
It’s that time of the year when student-athletes and teachers from the 10 administrative regions compete at the National Schools Championships.
The Championship, which started in 1959, saw the regions being broken up into 15 districts 1980, and since then, with the exception of 1987, 1989 and 1990 where East Coast Demerara (District 4) won the overall title, the winner’s trophy was shared between North Georgetown (District 11) and Upper Demerara/Kwakwani (District 10).
Deadlocked on 14 titles apiece, this year was suppose to be where the two districts battle it out, but, presently, it seems like a one horse race.
At the time of this report, North Georgetown was ninth in the athletics championship on 112.5 points, while their rivals Upper Demerara/Kwakwani sat comfortably at the top with 239.5 points. West Demerara (District 3) is second on 210.5 points, North West (District 1) third (208 points) while Essequibo Coast- Pomeroon (District 2) is in fourth on 171.5 points and Corentyne round out the top five with 149.5 points.
Mariska Williams, North Georgetown’s Manager, made it clear that her District (11), “where we are presently (overall), we will not win the championship”.
Williams basically waved the white flag in battle, telling the News Room, “I’m saying this for many reasons. So right now as it is, we are just trying to hold on to our second position”.
This year, the Guyana Teacher’s Union (GTU) enforced their ‘fan out’ exercise, to not only ensure that all the participating athletes are in school, but are also attending the school in the regions/districts they were registered to represent.
“We (North Georgetown) had our shortcoming with a private school and that had given us a terrible blow because we lost three teachers and one of our athletes who would’ve been competing in two different categories and that is one of our senior girl who is good and have a record already in the books. So it’s a terrible blow, but we are here and we’re going to do what we have too; just try to hold on to second position” Williams said.
While North Georgetown, as expected, took the Swimming title, at this stage it’s a forgone conclusion that Upper Demerara/Kwakwani will retain their overall championship trophy.
District 10 placed second in the swimming championship behind North Georgetown, and presently, only one point separates District Six (Corentyne) and Upper Demerara/Kwakwani in the Cycling Championship.
Defending champions District Six is on 269 points, just one ahead of District 10. With such a close gap between the two districts, the 40km Boys Open and 25km Girls Open road races on Friday will no doubt be hotly contested with the title literally hanging in the balance.
The Teachers Championship started today and News Room will provide an update on the points standing.
