Sports officials should sound like Sebert Blake

Jan 06, 2017 Sports

By Edison Jefford
Three-Star International Boxing Coach, Sebert Blake made a bold, but courageous, statement

Dr. Nicolette Henry

recently, which elevated his status as a serious sports official, who is not only interested in producing results, but also the ultimate outcome that is to deliver the elusive Olympic medals to Guyana.
Speaking to a television newscast on the return of a Boxing team from Barbados, Blake said that if he gets the resources, he can produce an Olympic medal at the 2020 Games in Osaka, Japan. If not, Blake said he will retire from the sport.
In other words, Blake was putting his coaching career on the line for the sake of securing significant results, which is the type of rhetoric that is unheard of on the local sports landscape. Blake had the right forum, and he used it to put his vision in perspective.
A Boxing team was returning to Guyana with some success. Minister within the Ministry of Education, Dr. Nicolette Henry, Director of Sport, Christopher Jones and Guyana Olympic Association (G.O.A) President K. A. Juman Yassin were present at the Airport to receive the team.
Blake knew he had an influential audience, so he used it to rightly challenge himself to perform on the greatest sport platform possible, the Olympic Games, instead of the mundane rhetoric that we have become so accustomed to from sport officials.
In the same breath, he also challenged those leaders present to invest in him; athletes must not be misled. Blake’s attitude was perfectly in order. In fact, more sport officials should sound like him as opposed to pitiable excuses, especially in the performance realm.
Never mind those officials and aficionados, who attempt to undermine the importance of Guyana getting Olympic medals to justify incompetence and nonchalance, athletes must aim for grandeur goals and the Olympic Games is as big as it gets.
We in the Caribbean knew of Usain Bolt’s talent since his youth performances at the CARIFTA Games, but Bolt would have never achieved his varying levels of success, if he did not challenge himself and the rest of the world on the biggest stage possible.
Bolt single-handedly sustained the Jamaican athletics programme with all its facets and added an overwhelming international appeal that propelled Jamaica to the top of the world in athletics. It is possible for Guyana to achieve a similar outcome, but our lone Olympic medal came in 1980 and since then, we have had leaders and officials making excuses.

Christopher Jones

Blake made his pronouncement based on what he knows, which is that Guyana possesses enough talent to give us Olympic medals. What we lacked over the years is the vision, the accompanying rhetoric and the resources to make the right investment. Generally, we lacked the leadership from our sports officials to produce regional and international results.
A new Government was elected in May 2015. Last year, we had the first full year to assess what is Government’s priority as it relates to the development of sports in Guyana. Some key areas are explicit while others need further enunciation.
For instance, there is a robust Ground Enhancement Project underway to develop grounds across the country; more money has been allocated to sports and its development in the national budget; the National Sports Commission has been giving out grants to associations, clubs and individuals in need and there is a plan for the construction of at least two more macro sports facilities, within the confines of the 2017 budget.
In addition, a database of local athletes is being developed; a national sports policy was promised this year and there is a stated plan to have a sports organiser and coach in every district. That was an outline of some of the major areas Government has tackled thus far is sports, which alludes to its macro developmental goals.
Those actions may not influence individual performances, but could change the regime of sports in Guyana. For performance, the Government is forced to rely on associations, organisations and even coaches, albeit it has a function to provide resources, especially finance and infrastructure.
For direct impact and results, officials like Blake become exceptionally important because they interface with athletes more often than Government, which places the burden and responsibility of performance on them. Poor performances from sports officials present an inadequate picture and undermine the work of Government at the macro level.
This is why Government must take the lead to ensure that its investment in sport directly impacts the performance of athletes so that there is accountability of officials. What Blake did was one of the refreshing aspects of sport last year.
He simply put his hands up and asked to be made accountable for the failures or successes of his pugilists over the next four years. Guyana need more officials with this sense of responsibility as opposed to the sorry excuses that pass as administration, and officials who are merely contented with the title of their position, perks and trips around the world.