Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 14, 2010 Sports
Site for Athletic Track with Football Filed to be known this week – Dr. Anthony
By Franklin Wilson
There has always been the call and cry, if you like, for more facilities of a modern nature to go along with the development of athletes across the spectrum in Guyana.
Sometimes the calls seem to fall on deaf ears, but according to Minister of Sport Dr. Frank Anthony, his Ministry is trying their utmost to respond to the various needs based on the availability of funds.
Speaking with Kaieteur Sport recently, Dr. Anthony disclosed that a number of facilities, new and refurbished will be coming on stream in the ensuing months and these facilities will further propel the development of sports in Guyana.
Construction of the state of the art 400 million plus Olympic Size 50m Swimming Pool is progressing and should be completed in about 3 months time; the Tennis and Squash Courts situated at Non Pariel Park, Woolford Avenue should be completed in another month or so and the announcement of the site for the construction of the all weather Athletic Track which would also see a full size Football Field at the said facility would be done sometime this week.
The Woolford Avenue facility has two Asphaltic Surface Tennis Courts with two Greenheart Stands to accommodate 300 spectators in each.
Construction of two Squash courts is also underway and this facility would be fully equipped with changing rooms that would also be used by the Tennis players. The Squash Association is being engaged according to Dr. Anthony to assist with the Technical aspect of the construction.
Minister noted that when they are finished with the Tennis and Squash Courts, they will be looking at raising funds to push ahead with the further development of the Woolford Avenue facility which also has a Football Field.
“Some private sector persons had expressed an interest in working with us to develop the field and so on, so we are working to see if that would be possible. So this is what we are doing there so far and when completed it would open up a new dimension in sport.”
The availability of Public Courts apart from those available in the National Park has been missing for quite some time Dr. Anthony reminded and he is eager for Woolford Avenue to get going.
He also stated that there are a number of schools in very close proximity to the Courts, among them, GTI, Queens College, Richard Ishmael Secondary and North Georgetown Primary to name a few.
The Ministry will be running classes for persons desirous of learning the skills of the sport to complement programmes that are already being run by the Guyana Lawn Tennis Association.
“Our facility would allow for that to happen and especially for the children who are immediately around there, they would be beneficiaries of that. We would be engaging the schools and I think some meetings have been set up with some schools around there so when they have physical education, if they want to come across and use the facility to learn to play Lawn Tennis and Squash, we would make time available.”
The facilities would be fully equipped to accommodate classes so if persons don’t have equipment they can still come and access the tools to learn the sports.
Duplication of similar facilities would be looked at in the future, Dr. Anthony disclosed.
“We’ll see how this develops and when we gain some experience from this we’ll want to do it in other Regions especially in the more highly populated areas. So I think it’s a positive initiative.”
Commenting on the Synthetic Athletic Track, Minister Anthony said they already have the designs for the facility and very shortly they will be doing work on it.
Quizzed on the conformation of the site for the Track, the Minister said, “We’re still fine tuning a site for Region 3 and by next week (this week) we will have a clearer position. This Synthetic Athletic Track will have a Football Field in the middle and I think this would be an improvement for football; you’ll have a good field and a good facility.”
“For athletics, it would be a major step upwards and again we would be engaging the relevant bodies to ensure that we have proper programming. In terms of athletics we would want to have regular coaching sessions which I think is the main thing.”
When all the civil works would have been completed and the Track is laid, development with regards to Lights and other amenities would be done on an incremental basis to enhance the entire facility.
“But we have come up with a master plan of what the facility can look like over time, building components as we go along. So I think this is a very positive step that would enhance both athletics and football and sports in general.”
Development across the board Dr. Anthony reiterated has to be much more structured and scientific across the board. He said he would love to see coaches making more use of the Sports Ministry’s Library in learning more about their specific sport.
“We’ll be offering training programmes by bringing in experts to impart their knowledge on modern trends with the hope of lifting us to the next level. Many of the associations can also help by bringing in persons with the technical expertise who are available through their international bodies.
We have to keep training people. We might not be moving fast as some people would like, but I think we are now making strategic steps in the right direction as we lay the foundation for stronger development in these areas.”
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