With athletes in preparation mode for the 49th Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) national school track, field and swimming championships defending champions District No.10, Upper Demerara/Kwakwani participation at the event is unclear.

According to information reaching Stabroek Sport the defending champions are considering pulling out of the event because of events which took place when the event was held last year in Linden. Several districts including North Georgetown, staged a protest in front of the GTU headquarters on Wolford Avenue, because they felt that District No. 10 had somewhat rigged the championships.

However, after deliberations, it was concluded that District 10 had won the title fairly and therefore had the right to the trophies.

Contacted for a comment  Mayfield Taylor-Trim, who has been in the athletics  arena for decades and is also known as the driving force behind schools athletics in the mining community, told Stabroek Sport that she too had heard the rumours but she stopped  short of confirming whether  the reports were true.

“Just like you I heard it, but let them keep talking, I don’t know if it’s true or false, that’s all I’ll say bout it at this time,” Taylor-Trim said.  “Those who are talking maybe know something I don’t, but like I said, I have nothing to say really,” Taylor-Trim maintained. Since the championship started in 1959, District No. 10 has won it 12 times and has always been one of the stronger teams at the event.

Their main rivals, North Georgetown, has won 10 championships with their last being in 2007 when the games were  hosted at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence.

The schools championships are slated for November 9-13 at the Albion Community Centre ground, Corentyne.  The games were held for the first time at Albion in 1979 and returned there in 1983, 1993 and 2000 and ironically that year, it was District No.10 who came out on top.