By Rawle Toney
Attorney-at-Law James Bond, who sits as a commissioner at the National Sports Commission (NSC), stated that the Region 10 community of Linden is more than deserving of a synthetic track.
Bond’s comments come after the NSC was tasked with ensuring the in excess of $536M allocated for sports from the 2017 National Budget, is well spent and one where the country’s sports men and women will be the eventual beneficiaries.
“Linden to me is the hub of all athletics in Guyana, it’s our Jamaica in Guyana. Linden has dominated our School’s Championships, they’ve produced stellar athletes over the past few years, and we believe that to take a track to Linden is the way to go” said Bond.
The former Member of Parliament further pointed out that “the facilities in Linden are not up to par, they’ve been neglected for 23 years, and we (the NSC), believes that now is the time to take the track to Linden”.
“Once we invest, not only in a track but the personnel, and we’re very happy and very hopeful that this vision is about to be realised for the people of Linden. Infrastructure wise, we did promise an upgrade and Budget 2017 will address those promises. The economy does not support a lot of things that we (the NSC) has envisioned, but I’m happy that we’re going to be able to give the people of Linden that track; they deserve it” said the Attorney-at-Law. Bond.
During an exclusive interview with News Room, Bond said that $160M was set-aside for the building of the track in Linden.
However, Minister within the Ministry of Education with the responsibility for Sports, Nicolette Henry at today’s (December 8) Budget debate told the National Assembly that synthetic tracks will be laid in Regions 2, 4, 6, 7 and 10. The sum of $210M has been allocated for this development.
However, a source close to National Sports Commission told News Room Sports that track in Linden is the Commission’s priority for projects next year, and reiterated that the sum of $160M will be allocated to the project.
According to an article published by Government Information News Agency (GINA), Minister Henry said that the Ministry of Education through the National Sports Commission will work to strengthen sports related services. The Minister noted that this will be done with the guidance of the National Sports Policy which is expected to be adopted in 2017.
Linden is known not only for producing Bauxite, but also for being, probably the country’s most sports-crazed community.
At the National School’s Championship, Linden holds the record for winning the most titles – 15 (as compared to North Georgetown’s 14). But what is even more remarkable, is that they’re able to produce some of the country’s, and to an extent the Caribbean’s top athletes, without proper and modern facilities at their disposal.
