- Mohammed excited about team’s prospects
By Rawle Toney
Winning a second successive Inter Guiana Games (IGG) cycling championship will be the only thing on the minds of Guyana’s seven member cycling team when they compete from November 12-16 in French Guiana’s second leg.

Under the watchful eyes of national coach Hassan Mohammed, the five males, Christopher Holder, Geron Williams, Christopher Persaud, Daniel Ramchurejee and Enzo Mathews along with the two females; Marcia Dick and Naomi Singh, will once again try to do Guyana proud by winning their respective races in the event first introduced when Guyana hosted the second leg of the 2007 games.

The organizers have planned to introduce female participation in the cycling event in an effort to more female participation at the games. They have also invited female cyclist from several European countries and neighbours Brazil.

Mohammed said he was optimistic that Guyana would do well at the games, adding that he was happier now that Singh and Dick, who had been doing well in Guyana, will be given an opportunity to match their skills with other females from out of Guyana. Dick, who is only 13-years-old has been improving steadily in her recent races.

She only started competing this year after she was discovered by Mohammed during his annual `Teach Them Young’ cycling programme.
“I’m glad that the girls will get a chance to be exposed to different competitons since the two only compete amongst themselves here in Guyana,” said Mohammed.

He added that it would be a boost to their confidence and said he hoped that their performance would lead to a greater involvement of females in what is a male-dominated sport.

Mohammad was excited about the prospects of the male junior cyclists in noting that the local contingent was blessed with some of the Caribbean’s best junior cyclists.

Geron Williams

Matthews recently copped the top spot in the junior category at the Caribbean Gold Cup Cycling event that featured some of the region’s top riders in various categories with Williams second and Mohammed said the others were “equally impressive.”
Three cyclists from last year’s victorious team are in this year’s team in Holder, Williams and Mathews.