By Treiston Joseph
Olympian Winston George and Natrena Hooper were announced as the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) Male and Female Athletes-of-the-Year when the association held its awards ceremony on Saturday evening at the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) building, Thomas Lands.
It was a night where there were no surprises in the award winners, especially in the youth and junior category. Compton Caesar won the Male Junior Athlete-of-the-Year award, while Andrea Foster won the Female equivalent. Odwin Tudor and Natricia Hooper were the runner-ups in the Male and Female category respectively.
Daniel Williams won the Youth Male Athlete-of-the-Year award, while Chantoba Bright won the Female version of the award. In the runner-up positions were Tyrell Peters and Kenisha Phillips respectively. Coach-of-the-Year went to Linden’s Johnny Greavesande, who received a standing ovation by all the coaches in attendance. The Male and Senior runners-up were Rupert Perry and Alita Moore.
Meanwhile, making remarks at the event, President of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA), K.A. Juman Yassin, urged the athletes to remain dedicated and focused and highlighted that the only way towards success is a collective input by athletes, coaches and associations.
“We will take your ideas put into a pool and see how best we can facilitate those and what we can do, but for us to improve we need the input of the coaches, associations and you the athletes,” Yassin highlighted.
Director of Sport, Christopher Jones, who was also in attendance, shared that the National Sport Commission (NSC) will use the recently qualified coaches, who were part of the IAAF Level One certificate to advance the sport in all of the 15 districts, similar to that of National School Sport system.
Jones also revealed that the coaches will be receiving a salary once employed by the NSC for their knowledge. The Director of Sport also urged the coaches to keep striving for greater certification by going for the Level Two course. President of the Athletics Association of Guyana, Aubrey Hutson, was pleased with what transpired during the last year and is aiming for greater success in 2017.
