Latest update April 17th, 2025 8:39 PM
Gold Striders Track and Field Games postponed
Derill Gittens
-Police, GDF opts out of unsanctioned meet
By Edison Jefford
Gold Striders Track and Field Games was yesterday postponed for unknown reasons following a Kaieteur Sport query with Director, Derill Gittens, who was indisposed at the time and could not give further details on the sudden rescheduling of the meet.
“It is postponed. It has been put to another date,” Gittens informed via telephone when contacted yesterday.
He said he was in a class at the University of Guyana, which made him unavailable to give further details on the latest subject to envelop local athletics.
This newspaper had learnt of the postponement through a source and subsequently contacted the Gold Striders Director for confirmation. While in separate interviews, Gittens would not admit it, the meet apparently had several areas that proved challenging.
As a result of some of those difficulties, two of Guyana’s top track and field teams: the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and Police Progressive Youth Club, both opted out of meet that was to be held this weekend at the Police Sports Club Ground, Eve Leary.
The teams took the position, citing that that they will not compete in any unsanctioned meet that has not met the requirements of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG).
Failing to convince the AAG that the meet should be sanctioned was Gittens’ first issue.
The athletics association is affiliated to the International Association of Athletics Federation and there is a rule that states that athletes under age 16 cannot compete for money, which they see as a form of encouraging ‘gambling’ from minors, who are athletes.
Gittens told another section of the media that the prize monies, which became the second source of issues, were going to the clubs and not athletes. However, the inherent contradiction in that is the fact that athletes from various age groups constitute the clubs.
In other words, clubs do not exist in isolation. The athletes were the ones that would have had to compete for the clubs in order for them to vie for the prize money, which some of the clubs have been asking for guarantees to ensure that they are rewarded.
Gittens was reluctant, from the very conceptualisation of the meet, to lodge the $1M amount that he has been advertising as prizes at the AAG. The procedure allows for clubs to have some form of guarantee that their efforts would not be steeped in futility.
Speaking with this newspaper yesterday, Head Coach of Police, Lyndon Wilson revealed that he had asked Gittens to merely indicate who his sponsors are before he registers his club and he was unable to do that, which raised concerns in the Police camp.
“He has to come out and be truthful with people. We were going to compete, but we were asking for an assurance of the prize money. Mark (Scott) and I discussed it and what we would have had to do is ensure no athlete under 16 competes,” Wilson indicated.
The Gold Striders Director, however, said earlier on Wednesday that he had five clubs registered to compete at the meet while he was still to confirm GDF and Police, who have both now made it public that they will not be competing at the inaugural competition.
Gittens third major problem arose when this newspaper discovered from its investigations that he had not made any payments for the venue though he was in possession of the confirmation letter, which is basically permission for him to use the ground.
He said that he could have paid for the ground at anytime, but up to press time yesterday, he had not paid for the venue.
Gittens would not have been allowed to use the Police Sports Club for the meet if it was not paid for prior to the staging of the competition.
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