Installation of warm-up track at National Track and Field facility earmarked for 2024

To bolster Guyana’s chances of hosting more regional and international events, a 200m warm-up track will be constructed this year at the National Track and Field Facility, West Coast Demerara.

Speaking Friday at a press conference to reflect on the work of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport in 2023, Minister Charles Ramson Jr. said that among the infrastructural developments will be the long-overdue installation of the warm-up track.

The Minister did not pin a timeline in 2024 for the track to be completed as he noted the Ministry has to synchronise its installation plans with the availability of the experts from German contracting firm BSW Regopul.

According to the minister, they have procured the necessary materials for the track’s construction.

The same company installed the synthetic material at the National Track and Field facility in 2014 and, most recently, at the facility at Bayroc, Linden.

In 2017, the then-director of the facility, Trevor Williams, stated there would be a 200m warm-up strip.

A tender was out for $14 million to cater for the groundwork.

It is understood that the additional work being done to the southwest of the facility will be G$19M.

The West Coast Demerara facility was officially opened in April 2015.

It is understood the total sum needed to construct the first-of-its-kind facility in Guyana was just over G$1 billion.

In 2023, resurfacing of the synthetic track was completed at a cost of G$77 million.

Additionally, the Minister indicated that construction of the stands, grass mound and players’ pavilion will continue at Bayroc and the new Anna Regina stadium, while they have completed the procurement of bucket seats for the new stand at the National Track and Field facility.