`GOA cannot do more than what it is doing’— says GS Edwards

-urges support to have athletes train and compete abroad

Guyana Olympic Association General Secretary, Hector Edwards
Guyana Olympic Association General Secretary, Hector Edwards

Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) General Secretary, Hector Edwards believes the body is doing all it can to groom athletes but needs further assistance to develop them into medalists.

Speaking at a press conference following the return of the Guyanese contingent from the Pan American Games, Edwards posited, “GOA cannot do more than what it is doing, others must come on board.”

The General Secretary, who was there witnessing the action explained that “it is not to give GOA, boxing or swimming but the young athletes a chance to feel as if they have worth, you feel worthwhile if you can perform at a high level and represent your country well.”

Guyana Olympic Association President, Kalam Juman-Yassin

From his observation, Edwards firmly considers a few of the local athletes to have what it takes to qualify for the Olympics in Tokyo next year, but reckons that the GOA cannot do it alone.

“In my opinion, we have people that could qualify for the Olympics but must start [preparation] now. We need to start having our athletes out training and competing internationally with a high level to take you to the next level, it cannot happen in Guyana and how do they get to that level, by investing,” Edwards stated.

Edwards further suggested that it is a matter of urgency since “they are almost too late to prepare for Olympics and we talking a year away so it is not just what we can do a month or two prior to but what we willing to do for a longer periods leading up to games and that’s where we are failing.”

He said for the Pan American Games, the GOA did what it could.

“We [GOA] did beyond what we felt we could have done with our limited resources… was it adequate based on our resources? Yes, but to perform to a high level, no… as we look forward to the Olympics we need a lot more resources.”

The General Secretary revealed that funding isn’t as much as the public expects, pointing out that the monies coming in are from Olympic Solidarity programmes which have to be requested and worked with a plan and other avenues that assist but not as much as is needed.

Edwards theorized, “We are incapable of giving the type of support over the long run, if one were to look at the duration of time needed to prepare effectively, we cannot do it but in the short run we did the best we could based on the resources.”

President of the GOA, Kalam Juman-Yassin supported the General Secretary, relating that the body pulled out all the stops to assist in preparation for the recent games.

“Boxing, yes we brought the Cuban coach here for several months before, Keevin went to Cuba, much more can be done but I am satisfied with that for him…Squash, they went months ago to the United States with the coach being David Palmer, former world number one, the three girls went there, they came back here and there were some other preparations…Athletics, we have no control over that, everyone is abroad, swimming, I don’t think we could do anything, any coaching in the past six months wouldn’t help because they are far away…Table tennis, we assisted, taekwondo, no the young man trains in Canada, rugby we assisted by paying the person designated by the association to try smooth things over in the last six weeks…Badminton went to a course, so we tried,” Juman-Yassan said.

Guyana, after competing at 16 Olympics have secured a lone bronze medal in boxing won by Michael Parris in 1980 while at Pan American Games they have won 18 medals including 12 bronze, four silver and two gold, the latest of which was a bronze in squash from Nicolette Fernandes in 2011.