Twenty-four years after being crowned Guyana’s national sprint champion (1985), Colin Boyce, an assistant superintendent of police in Guyana, was elevated to the helm of the Athletic Association of Guyana (AAG) as its president in January 2009. Today he believes that under his leadership the organization has made great strides in the development of track and field in the country.
In a recent exclusive interview with Caribbean TrackLife, Boyce acknowledged that more could be done, but emphasized the frustration of the snail’s pace things in Guyana take to get done.
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Pompey, the 2010 Commonwealth Games silver medalist.
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Danns, the 2007 South American Juniors champion.
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On Oct. 23, 2010, the Stabreok News published the concerns of some Guyanese track and field athletes about the direction of the sport in that country. Amid the complaints though, some praised Boyce’s leadership and the direction in which he is headed. However, the overall issue raised by almost all the athletes in that article was the lack of an all-weather track (synthetic track surface) in Guyana.
“Yes, that statement is correct,” Boyce said. “Over the years Guyana has produced world-class athletes and Olympians such as James Gilkes, Brenda Archer, Marion Burnett, Charles Allen, Ralph Gomes, Adam Harris, Mark Mason and more recently, Aliann Pompey.” He further pointed out that “it is unacceptable” that in the 21st Century, there’s not one, all-weather track in the entire Guyana, and that national trials are run on grass.
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Burnett, left, goes up against Jamaica's champion, Kenia Sinclair, at the 2009 Jamaica nationals in Kingston. DPalmer photo
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Boyce explained that since becoming president of AAG, the issue of getting an all-weather track has been high on his list of priorities and that he was happy to report that a meeting between the Guyanese Minister of Sports and him has accomplished much. A location for the track has been secured on the west coast of Demerara, in the village of Leonora, and the Guyanese government has allocated a budget for the construction of the track scheduled to be completed in 2011.
Another goal Boyce and his organization are working to achieve is to be up-to-date with the timing device of the 21st century. Guyana, Boyce said, does not have a fully automatic timing or FAT system. The lack of such a system puts Guyanese athletes at a major disadvantage because the country has to rely on hand-timing method, which isn’t accepted regionally or internationally.
According to him, his organization has submitted an estimate to the Ministry of Sports for the purchase of a FAT system, which is US$5,000 or approximately G$1,000,000. However, he is yet to receive a response on the matter.
In the meantime, Boyce is calling on the Guyana business community and Diaspora, more so those in North America and the UK, for their support.
He identified Andy Medas-King, a Guyanese national living in New York as one individual who has accepted the baton, so to speak, and has made great strides in aiding the development of track and field in Guyana. Medas-King, he said, has spearheaded a drive to get and deliver to the AAG several dozen pairs of running shoes and other athletic gear for athletes in Guyana, especially those in high school.
“This was a critical area of need, because many athletes were either running barefooted or with improper running shoes,” he noted.
And to Guyanese athletes living abroad, who would like to represent their country, Guyana and the AAG, Boyce said, welcome them and urged them not to allow the deficiencies in Guyana to deter them. Guyanese-born Dax Danns is a young man who needed no invitation to do so; he proudly represented the land of his birth in the sprints after he emigrated to the US. In 2007, Danns won 200m gold at the South American Junior Championships and has continued to run credible times as a key member of the Nebraska University team.
Boyce is also pushing for stronger competition, and has arranged with other regional bodies to allow Guyanese athletes to participate in their meets. The advantages to its athletes would be twofold: frequent use of an all-weather track and the opportunity to be timed electronically.
On the subject of high school athletes of Guyanese descent in the Diaspora, Boyce implored them to compete for the country at events such as the Carifta Games, pointing out that they would need to meet three requirements: a valid Guyanese passport, verifiable performance time (FAT), and submit a registration form by March of the year of the meet.
He believes that Guyana’s high school athletes are good and can compete against some of their peers who are the best in the region as well as the world.
To that end, he is working on inviting athletics scouts from within the region, especially North America, to attend some of Guyana’s track and field events to see the talents worthy of scholarships abroad.
Writer's Note:
Athletes who are apprehensive about running and training on grass, check out the link to a feature that shows members of Jamaica’s men world record 4x100m team and other Jamaican athletes training on grass: http://www.caribbeantracklife.com/current-features/2010/8/14/young-athlete-finds-secret-to-jamaicas-sprinting-success. In addition, read Speak Your Mind to see comments from runners in the US who discuss their experiences running on grass.
James Gilkes' 100m Time Stands as Guyana's Record
Caribbean TrackLife recently linked into a story that predicted a controversy would brew over whether Guyanese sprinter Jeremy Bascom had really erased James Gilkes’ national record at a meet in New Jersey, a time that more than qualified him for the recent Commonwealth Games in India.
Reports are that Boscom ran a new Guyana 100m record (10 secs flat). According to the reports, he was originally clocked at 11:04 secs for second place in that race and winner Lee Powell at 10.76. Following a protest from Bascom’s camp over the placings, the positions were switched and Boscom awarded the victory, and with the new time of 10 secs. Though Boscom went to Games based on the Jersey time, the IAAF has not acknowledged the time.
At the Games, Boscom failed to run a time even remotely close to what he was recorded as clocking in Jersey. His time in the first round heat of 10.55 for 4th place was good enough to take him into the second round, where he managed only 10.64 for 8th place and was subsequently eliminated.
From the standpoint of Guyana’s athletics chief Colin Boyce, James Gilkes record of 10.19 seconds set in 1978 is still the official 100m record of Gu
yana.