A team of nine athletes from the University of Guyana Track and Field Club (UGTF) was set to depart Guyana early this morning for the twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago, where they will participate in the Falcon Games which will be held from Friday to Sunday at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.
Coach of the newly-formed UGTF club, Anson Ambrose, formerly of the Royal Youth Movement (RYM) Athletics Club, in an interview with Stabroek Sport, said that athletes will be using the meet as a gauge to judge their individual performances following their pre-competition training that was conducted over the past weeks.
He indicated that the athletes are at standard where they can represent themselves at the games.
According to Ambrose the athletes are injury free and he said that he was expecting the majority of the athletes to produce personal best times in their respective events.
Seventeen-year-old Ornesto Thomas is one of the athletes the coach said that he expects good results from. Thomas, who failed to make the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) CARIFTA standard in the boys’ U18 800m and 1500m, is likely to run a better time than the standard stipulated by the AAG.
According to Ambrose, the main reason why Thomas did not achieve the qualifying mark at the Trials some two weeks ago was the lack of sufficient preparation.
Ambrose said that the only challenge that the team faces is the lack of overseas exposure for some of the athletes.
“For some it will be their first international meet and given that the club is newly formed, a lot [of people] are expecting a lot from us but we are presently going through the necessary stages that would take us to where we want to be,” he said.
Athletes representing the University of Guyana Track and Field are:
Kenneth Semple (100m, 200m)Owen Adonis (100m, 200m)Elton Bollers (200m, 400m) Carwlyn Norris (200m, 400m)Neil Barry (400m)Philip Drayton (400m)
Ernesto Thomas (800m, 1500m) Stephan Josiah (1500m, javelin, high jump)
Geoffrey La Rose (javelin, discus, shot put). The team manager is Lavern Fraser-Thomas.
