-IGG reduced to contest between Guyana versus Suriname
Coaches and selectors have chosen the final 12 players for the junior national male basketball team to compete at the Inter Guiana Games (IGG) Basketball tournament next month in Suriname but the format of the Games has been adjusted this year.
The National Sports Commissions (NSC) informed some of the sports fraternities participating in the event this year that the 2012 Inter-Guiana Games had been cancelled for some disciplines. Some such disciplines that will be not competing in the Inter-Guiana Games this year include swimming, football and track and field.
However, Guyana and Suriname will be engaged in what the NSC calls the Inter Guiana Goodwill Games (IGGG). Without the participation of French Guiana in this year’s tournament, the competition is now just considered by the NSC as a Goodwill event.
The IGGG, as it is being called, should not to be confused with the Goodwill Swimming championships that are held each year between Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Suriname, will be held during the first two weeks in next month.
This reduced IGG will feature competitions in Chess, cycling, volleyball and basketball and according to coordinator of the IGG male basketball programme Chris Bowman, the basketball tournament will be held with a home and away format.
Bowman stated that Suriname is expected to travel to Guyana during the first weekend of November to compete in Chess, Volleyball, cycling and basketball. Guyana will then travel to Suriname the next weekend for the basketball contest according to Bowman.
The 12 players that have been chosen for this year’s team are Nikkoloi Smith(Guyana Industrial Training College), Dominic Vincente (Marian Academy), Dominique Douglas (Kwakwani Secondary), Linden Fraser (Linden Technical Institute)and Dave Plass (Kwakwani Secondary) Travin Dryden (Wismar Christianburg Multilateral, Nyamebekyere Bacchus(President’s College), Elvis Thompson (Kwakwani Secondary), Leonard Primo (Kwakwani Secondary), Akeel Primo (Linden Technical Institute), Dwight Gray (Government Technical Institute) and Taquain Vieira (Marian Academy).
Of the 12, five player have competed in previous editions of the IGG including Plass who competed in 2010 but was notably absent last year. Captain of the 2011 team Vincente, Smith, Douglas and Fraser all two-time junior national players, will surely be hoping to that their third outing is their most successful. The team will be coached by former national captain Lugard Mohan for the second straight year.
Bowman also mentioned that the girls team will include eight players who competed at IGG last year. Those players are Lowquantor Gibson, Tamara Hunter, Ginelle Ifill, Necosia Mitchell, Kadian Rowe, Kristy Roberts, Briawna Gordan and Denisha Layne. The girls’ team is expected to be coached once again by national coach Robert Cadogan, while Bishops’ High School Basketball coach Wayne Hinds will function as his assistant.
