GOA identifies 16 for CAC Games
By Donald Duff
Stabroek News
October 23, 2002
Guyana will be represented at the 19th Central American and Caribbean Games in El Salvador from November 23 to December 7th by a 16-member team of athletes and officials chef-de-mission Garfield Wiltshire said yesterday.
The disciplines to be contested are squash, boxing, karate, athletics, weightlifting and table tennis.
Wiltshire, who holds the unique distinction of being national champion at table tennis and squash said the GOA looked at the 32 countries that will be participating at the games and also took into consideration the performances of Guyana teams at the Caribbean level.
As a result, squash was allocated five spots, karate three, boxing three and athletics four.
However, athletics has decided to utilise only two spots and the other two spots have been given to weightlifting and table tennis the two other associations who had met the GOA deadline for submitting nominations, Wiltshire said.
Former world rated squash player Maxim Weithers heads the men's squash team line up with reigning CARASRA champion, Luke Fraser and current national champion Sean Badrinauth comprising the other members.
The female team will comprise Nicolette Fernandes and former Southern Caribbean squash champion Gillian Griffith who resides in England.
Fernandes, who is training in England, will travel directly to the games, Wiltshire disclosed.
Karate will be represented by Marvin Singh and David Hardy with Charles Woon-A-Tai as the official while Terrence Poole will serve as manager/coach of the two man boxing team of Paul Lewis and Lennox Alleyne.
Nyota Peters is the only athlete selected and she will compete in the heptathlon.
The weightlifting and table tennis associations are yet to identify their athletes, Wiltshire said.
Weightlifting are making efforts to send additional players while the table tennis representative is likely to be Godfrey Munroe.
The GOA will subsidise the cost of the contingent participating in the games by providing 50 per cent of the funding necessary while the associations will be required to foot the other 50 per cent.
Associations that require additional athletes to take part in the game must bear the full cost of the athletes' participation, said Wiltshire.
Wiltshire said the government has been written to and they will make a decision after the official team is selected.
For the Commonwealth Games the government paid 50 per cent of the team's participation while the GOA paid the other half.
The CAC Games will be held in the city of San Salvador.