United States of America-based World Junior 400 metres silver medallist Kadecia Baird will miss the upcoming Under-23 South American Junior Champion-ships president of the Athletics Association of Guyana Colin Boyce said yesterday.
According to the AAG president Baird will not be considered for selection because of various school commitments.
However, 400m junior champion Stephan James is believed to be among a small group of athletes the AAG will choose from when they meet tomorrow to select the Under-23 National team for Brazil and the South American Youth team for Argentina. “James might be one of the prospects but I don’t want to say who is sure at the moment because we will have a meeting on Wednesday (tomorrow) to discuss the team since the closing date for final entries will be on Friday,” Boyce told Stabroek Sport in a telephone interview.
James ran 46.99s to set Guyana’s junior 400 metres national record while making the 47.00s qualifying time in the process for the Under-23 games. He also clocked 47.9s at the trials last weekend and 21.2s in the 200 metres which standard is set at 21.3s.
The only other athlete to meet the Under-23 qualifying standards was junior 100 metres champion Chavez Ageday who equalled the qualifying time which was set at 10.50s. Tevin Garraway also shone in the youth category in both the 100 and 200 metres. He ran 10.6s in the 100 metres and 21.9s in the 200 metres.The youth qualifying standards were set at 10.7s and 22.0s.Boyce was yesterday sceptical about the times both athletes recorded explaining that they were clocked by hand and as such would have to be re-evaluated. “Well we will have to look at these times because they were hand times and we would have to take .25s off of them to come up with what the times might be, but we will have an open meeting with all the coaches to discuss who they think should be on the team,” he explained. No other youth athlete came close to any of the set standards at the track meet last weekend.
Boyce also said he was considering two-time 1500 metres gold medallist Jevina Straker and triple jumper Natrena Hooper for the games.
“I was looking at Jevina (Straker) because she ran 2:16s in the 800 metres without anybody to push her in the race so she will definitely be considered. Natrena Hooper did 11.78 metres in the triple jump as opposed to our 12 metres standard which is worth a look,” he added.
The AAG head was also concerned that cost might prove a hindrance to getting the team to Sao Paolo, Brazil. “The cost factor to Sao Palo is about US$1,700 and we will be exploring different options to see the best route to the games even if the athletes have to overnight. I objected to the ALBA team last year travelling overland and my team will not travel by land but everything will be discussed on Wednesday at the meeting,” Boyce said.
