Sixteen athletes and three officials, accompanied by a Chef-de-Mission, will represent Guyana at the inaugural Caribbean Games, billed for June 29 to July 3 in Guadeloupe.
Athletes from 3×3 Basketball, Athletics and Swimming will represent Guyana at the event, which caters to seven disciplines, the others being Netball, Judo, Cycling and Futsal.
Notably, the Games, which has attracted 800 athletes and 200 officials from 29 countries, is geared to showcase Under-23 athletes.
Guyana’s contingent comprises:
Athletics: Moses Pantilz (Coach), Chantoba Bright, Kenisha Phillips, Joanna Archer, Juvonna Cornette, Loneil Marks, Revon Williams and Keiron De Souza.
3×3 Basketball: Saleena Arjune (Coach), Stanton Rose, Timothy Thompson, Kimol Grimmond and Yonnick Tappin.
Swimming: Paul Mahaica (Coach), Zara Crane, Patrice Mahaica, Reakwon Noel, Sekhel Tzedeq and Paul Mahaica Jr.
Assistant Secretary of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA), Deion Nurse, has been appointed Chef-de-Mission.
At a press briefing on Saturday, both Nurse and GOA Treasurer Garfield Wiltshire congratulated the athletes on their selection and wished them well at the Games.
About the Games (As outlined on the official website)
The first Caribbean Games are scheduled in Guadeloupe from June 29 to July 3, 2022. They will include seven disciplines with demonstrations of disabled sports as well as e-sports. Twenty-nine countries will be represented by around 800 athletes and 200 officials.
One of the dreams of sports leaders in the Caribbean has always been to organise multi-sport Games. The Southern Games, held for more than a decade at Guaracara Park, south of Trinidad, featured only athletics and cycling.
Initially, the competition took place over a single weekend, but later expanded to five days.
World and Olympic champions used to participate in these Games, so much so that in 1969, there was a real “remake” of the 400m finals of the 1968 Mexico Summer Olympics. Hasely Crawford, Edwin Roberts and Wendell Mottley all competed in the Southern Games.
Subsequently, Jamaica successfully hosted the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1966, the first English-speaking Caribbean country to host a major international multi-sport Games.
Many believed then that this would eventually lead to the region creating its own Games, but that did not turn out to be the case.
One of the main objectives of CANOC (Association of Caribbean Olympic Committees) is the organisation of the Caribbean Games.
