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GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, April 28, 2017
Guyanese competing at Penn State Relays - Archibald all set for men’s long jump today - GTI girls out of college women’s 4x100m GUYANESE Emanuel Archibald is all set, and is anticipating favourable results when he steps out this afternoon to participate in the college men’s long jump at the Penn Relays, which started yesterday at the Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. “[I feel] great. There’s good weather, and my coach
Natrena Hooper
The GTI and Fort Wellington athletes before leaving Guyana for this year’s Penn Relays
Emanuel Archibald
says I’m in good shape to win it,” Archibald told Chronicle Sport yesterday. The Relays will be the biggest event that Archibald has attended since starting out as an athlete, and he’s still ecstatic about
Government must respond to Foster’s call for end to cricket chaos (Letter to the Sports Editor)
PLEASE allow me the opportunity to express my whole hearted support for Mr. Hilbert Foster’s call for immediate Government intervention in the local cricket fiasco. Mr. Foster’s call is timely and extremely relevant to the future of our cricket which has been devastated by the incompetent group that has hijacked the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) since 2011. Government’s intervention merely requires that the Attorney General and/or the Minister of Sport, who are the defendants in the frivolous challenge to the Cricket Administration Act 2014, initiate action to have the injunction to the Act dismissed. That challenge was instituted by Anand Sanasie et al. Then Chief Justice (Ag) Ian Chang issued an order that prevented any elections of the
GCB and its membership until the substantive matter is heard, which in effect is indefinite. The defendants role is to have the matter brought up for early hearing or alternatively have the injunction quashed thereby paving the way for free and fair elections of the GCB to be held for the first time since August, 2011 when the chaos began. Since the Cricket Act is properly in place, it only requires enforcing the rules to introduce the principle of democracy back into our Cricket Administration. All factions will then be united under a legal framework and cricket will once again have legitimacy and accountability in our dear land of Guyana. What is so wrong with that? CLAUDE RAPHAEL.
CRICKET QUIZ CORNER (Friday April 28, 2017) COMPLIMENTS OF THE TROPHY STALL-Bourda Market & The City Mall (Tel: 225-9230) & CUMMINGS ELECTRICAL COMPANY LTD-83 Garnett Street, Campbellville, Georgetown (Tel: 225-6158) Answers to yesterday’s quiz: (1) 13 (2) 12 Today’s Quiz: (1) Who are the Guyanese that played in the recent first Test of the current WI/PAK series? (2) What are the best bowling figures in a Test innings by a WI bowler against Pakistan? ANSWERS IN TOMORROW’S ISSUE
making the team. “I’m really excited, because I worked very hard to qualify for this track meet.” He expressed Archibald, who has had a
season’s best (SB) of 7.63m in the long jump, is representing the University of the West Indies (UWI), where he is currently studying on a scholarship. Also representing UWI will be Guyana’s
Female Athlete of the Year, Natrena Hooper. Hooper will be in the college women’s high jump tomorrow, her only event at the meet. Archibald will wrap up his participation with the college men’s triple jump tomorrow. Archibald and Hooper are among a number of Guyanese that are participating at the respected meet, which concludes on Saturday. In yesterday’s competition, the Guyanese team of Denita Jackson, Alisia Grant, Tandika Haynes, and Cassie Smalls failed to make it past the heats of the College Women’s 4x100.
Representing the Guyana Technical Institute (GTI), from New Amsterdam, the girls clocked 50.73 seconds, running in heat 8. The girls are part of a team of 26 athletes from Berbice, 10 of them are representing the GTI and 16 coming out for Fort Wellington Secondary. A GTI team was also in yesterday’s college women’s 4x400m heats. Today, GTI has the college men’s 4x100m, 4x200m and 4x400m heats, as well as the women’s 4x200m heats. Fort Wellington is in the high school boys’ 4x100m, while on Saturday they have a team in the high school boys’ 4x400m.
Goodluck pleased with tennis development, ahead of seeking re-election - GTA elections set for May 6
INCUMBENT Guyana Tennis Association (GTA) president, Jamal Goodluck, admits that progress in the sport has been slow over the past year, but says he is satisfied that at least some headway has been made. His words come as he prepares to seek re-election when the Association holds its Annual General Meeting (AGM) and election of office bearers next week Saturday, May 6, at the National Resource Centre, Woolford Avenue. “I would say I’m pleased at the efforts we’re making, given the things that we have to work with,” Goodluck told the Guyana Chronicle in an exclusive interview earlier this week. Over the past year development has been sluggish because,as Goodluck says, from personnel to infrastructure, the sport remains gravely challenged. “The GLTA had been poised for greater development and work when I came to office. I do think that the state is similar but we are gradually making strides towards the big vision. It’s been slow, slow but steady. We can move a
little faster, I think, with the right resources as it relates to human, as well as infrastructure,” Goodluck said. Goodluck has been at the helm of the Association since being elected to the position last year
GTA President, Jamal Goodluck
May, going down as the Association’s youngest president to date. Some of the goals Goodluck had hoped to achieve after taking over the presidency last year included: seeing an improved performance from Guyana at last year’s Inter Guiana Games tennis tournament; completing a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Sports Commission over the use of the tennis courts at the National Racquet Centre; having at least one Guyana tennis facility brought
up to International Tennis Federation (ITF) standard, and increasing involvement and opportunities for senior players in the sport. To that end,Goodluck says progression was made somewhat on all these fronts, and a few other. “In terms of developments we would have made some strides in building our association. We haven’t had a headquarters in forever and we’ve secured that. The ability for us to engage with government partners [has improved]. We would have made an attempt at the start of this year to put together a high performance training squad,” Goodluck related, as he spoke of some of the progress made. Tennis is not one of the sports that Guyana has been particularly excelling in over the years;Guyanese players struggle at regional competitions, while our international presence is almost non-existent. Tennis in Guyana is almost exclusively relegated to the junior level, with most players leaving the sport once they age into the senior category. Very little if any opportunity exists for the
players to make a life out of playing tennis. However, over the years a few players have secured scholarships and stuck with the sport. Guyanese Diwani Lewis was one such scholarship player, who went on to become a head tennis coach at Coppin University. He later came back to create a scholarship opportunity for top boys singles player Gavin Lewis, who is still on his scholarship at Coppin. There is also Nicola Ramdyhan who was recently offered a scholarship by overseas-based Guyanese Bill Adams at his Bill Adams International Tennis Academy. Adams is an international tennis coach who has worked with the likes of world great Serena and Venus Williams. He is currently hoping to set up one of his academies in Guyana, confident that he could find and develop a lot of talent here. “There are several coaches outside of Guyana who are enthusiastic to come and train in Guyana. But [if they come] where are they going to train? They don’t have any facility for them to work out of,” Goodluck pointed out.