Schools National Championships to run off from Monday

The Schools National Championships, the  largest local sporting event that draws over 2,000 athletes, will run off from November 14 as the three Georgetown Districts get set to make a bid for the title.

The 51st edition of the longest running sports event in Guyana is set to capture attention from all schools countrywide while the North Georgetown Zone (District 11) will seek to defend their championship.

The schools national event encompasses four main areas – Athletics, Cycling, Swimming and Teachers Athletics.

As the defending champions and the winners of the last three out of four championships, after the 2008 championships in Linden were declared null and void due to disturbances at the sports, North Zone will favour themselves to go for their fourth straight title.

Stabroek Sport spoke with team manager of District 11 Mark Wills about how their preparations to defend their title are coming along.

Teenage sprint star Jevina Sampson led training drills on Wednesday at the National Park. (Orlando Charles photo)

“Basically we have a championship team to defend our championship and we are going into the championships with confidence.

“Our mindset is to go in and win all aspects of the championship so that it can be a dominant victory with no questions being asked…so from Monday that’s what we will be prepared to do,” Wills stated confidently.

North Georgetown’s neighbours, East Georgetown (District 12), which was  third will try once more to do their best, according to team manager Rawle Duke.

“Everything is on stream for the athletes to compete…we don’t have the quality team that we are accustomed to although we were never really able to field a quality team like North Georgetown and South Zone because of how the schools are sectioned off in the zone, we are still prepared to go out and compete.

Letitia Myles does her run outs during the South Georgetown training session at the National Park on Wednesday. (Orlando Charles photo)

“The only concern I have is that the ministry is concerned with the teachers’ participation…they want us to go compete and come back and teach during the championship. We have sent out release forms and to date have no significant reply and that’s my concern,” Duke told Stabroek Sport via telephone.

Meanwhile South Georgetown (District 13) which has continually gotten stronger in the past four years will be the team to look out for when the championships get underway.

Speaking with Stabroek Sport via telephone, team manager Selwyn Brown confidently stated that his team has the ability to pull off an upset.

“Preparations are coming good for us, we have put together a championship team that we know could win the championship.
“This afternoon (Wednesday) and tomorrow afternoon (Thursday) our athletes will be in the National Park doing some fine tune work such as baton passing and so, so we should be ready,” Brown commented.

Meanwhile efforts to contact a representative from Linden (District 10), the biggest threat to the reign of North Georgetown, proved futile.