By Tamica Garnett
General Secretary of the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) Godfrey Munroe and Mayfield Taylor-Trim, Counsel Member of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) along with Dr Karen Pilgrim are the officials who will accompany Guyana’s four member team to the inaugural World Youth Championships in Singapore later this year.
This was disclosed by Dr Pilgrim herself.
The Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) also disclosed that in addition to the four athletes to attend the World Youth Olympics Games (YOG) two athletes, one male and one female, will be sent to Mexico City for the arrival of the Youth Olympic Flame (JYOF) on that country’s soil.
The International Olympic torch relay, a prelude of the YOG, will see the JYOF spread across the globe.
The flame will travel to five continents transpiring the message of the Games along the way and will visit one city in each of the continents of Europe, Africa, the Americas, Oceania and Asia.
Starting in July, the JYOF will be lit in Greece, and then journey to Berlin (Germany), Dakar (Senegal), Mexico City (Mexico), Auckland (New Zealand) and Seoul (Republic of Korea). The flame will arrive in Singapore for a six-day round-island torch relay before it lights the cauldron at the Singapore 2010 YOG Opening Ceremony, to mark the start of the inaugural YOG.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had previously abandoned international Olympic torch relays after violent protests had overshadowed the relay held for the 2008 Beijing Games.
They had stated that it was much easier for the torch to just remain in the host country.
However organizers of the Singapore YOG were given the green light from the IOC when they made a request to instate the torch relay.
Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was invited to send two youth representatives to participate in a torch pass ceremony at a City Celebration, and President of the GOA, Juman Yassin, confirmed that two athletes will be attending. The athletes are still to be chosen and Yassin stated that the only certainty, on that issue at this point, was that the athletes will be chosen from sporting disciplines exclusive of the three that have already been chosen to send athletes.
Yassin cited that it was only fair to give the other associations a chance to get their athlete involved. The IOC will be funding the athletes’ attendance to this venture as well.
Pilgrim had earlier last week divulged that table tennis player, Adielle Roushevel, athlete Jevina Straker and swimmer Henk Lowe are the prospecting athletes to be sent to the Games.
While AAG President, Colin Boyce, this week stated that the fourth slot for male runner was still being deliberated between sprinters Curtis Fraser and Chavez Ageday.
