UG track club sets sights on first calendar season

The newly established University of Guyana (UG) Track and Field Club (UGTFC)has already began its inaugural campaign in the 2013 calendar season scheduled by the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG).

Last Sunday, the AAG 2013 National Cross Country Championships, four of UGTFC athletes competed in the first event of the year. The athletes who competed for UG were former national champion Wayne Harlequin, Mooneswar Rashdhari, Kwame Abrams and junior middle distance sensation Ornesto Thomas.

Thomas and Harlequin are two of the country’s top campaigners in their respective events and according to UG’s sports organiser Lavern Fraser-Thomas, they are an asset to the institution’s track and field club.  Fraser-Thomas told this newspaper that  membership of the UGTFC is not restricted to UG students although prospects must be scrutinized before being accepted. Thomas, who was trained in his earlier years by John Martins of the Enmore Track club, placed second in the junior category of the Cross Country Championships.

Lavern Fraser-Thomas
Lavern Fraser-Thomas

The UGTFC was formed last November following the UG Athletics Championships which they staged at the UG ground. The club now boasts 30 athletes, which is more than some other AAG affiliated clubs, and is coached by former coach of Royal Youth Movement coach Anson Ambrose. Harlequin as well as another premier athlete Phillip Drayton were both members of RYM during Ambrose’s tenure as coach.

Fraser-Thomas said that the UGTFC will be fielding more athletes later this month at the AAG’s series of Development Meets. She  stated that the club will be looking to compete at most of the local meets in an effort to make their presence felt on the local track and field arena.

While most of the individual athletes have set goals, Fraser-Thomas said that as the administrator, her hope is to have the UGTFC athletes compete among the country’s premier athletes as a gauge as where they are and implement structure to enable them to reach their goals.

UG participated at the Barbados Relay Fair last year and managed to secure medals and according to Fraser-Thomas, the institution’s track and field programme is now better structured and able to perform at similar international events. One of the events that Fraser-Thomas divulged that UGTFC will be looking to compete in is the Falcon Games in Trinidad and Tobago later this year.