Linden/Georgetown sports rivalry now shifts to Kayaking

Mar 12, 2023 Sports

– Inter-Schools Kayaking Championships set for April 30 at Watooka House

By Rawle Toney

Kaieteur News – The Linden versus Georgetown rivalry in sports is well-documented, especially in the disciplines of football, basketball and track and field.

Students from St Rose’s High School enjoying their practice session at the Watooka Guest House ahead of the 2023 Inter-Schools Kayaking Competition

However, thanks to Elite Kayaking and Nature Tours and their partnership with the Ministry of Education, that age-old rivalry will now add a new sport to the list.

The 2023 edition of the Inter-School Kayaking championships is set for April 30 at the Watooka Guest House and will once again form part of the Linden Town Week celebration.

Hosted by Elite Kayaking and Nature Tours, the event will feature 12 secondary schools from Georgetown and Region 10, all vying for top honours and bragging rights at the second edition of the championships.

While last year’s event only saw Queen’s College and St Rose’s High joining all the secondary schools in Linden for the competition, this time around they’ll be joined by The Bishop’s High School, St Joseph’s High School and St. Stanislaus College.

Dr Deon Anderson, the pioneer of the event, told Kaieteur News Kayaking Championships “brings together that perfect connection between the three sectors of education, sports and tourism. So it’s a new way of introducing sports tourism

St Rose’s third-form student, Jarrell Toney deep in concentration during his school’s practice session.

into the schools. Hence the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Sports and Minister of Tourism are fully involved in terms of endorsing.”

“We are accustomed to the conventional type of sports like track and field, swimming and so forth, but this is a novel sport which brings a newness, a new type of interest and a new skill set to the forefront. We have many persons who paddling is their way of life when it comes to getting to school, getting around the community,” Dr Anderson said.

Dr Anderson called the competition “interesting,” telling Kaieteur News, “you know, most intriguingly, Linden has held the record for the last how many years of being the champions at athletics, and last year they evolved with a clean sweep as the champions of the Kayaking event as well.”

Dr Deon Anderson

Leading up to the competition, schools from Georgetown will make regular trips to Linden to sharpen their skills, something Dr Anderson said will level the playing field with the schools in the Mining Town.

“So we’re looking forward to seeing interesting competition, to see who is going to dominate this year’s competition. Because Bartica already called and said they’ve invested in Kayaks, New Amsterdam called to say that they have been distributed 15 actually,” the competition’s organiser added.

Dr Anderson said he’s looking forward to the April 30 event, hoping that it brings “really good sportsmanship, really good new skill set, and we’re here to have fun. We’re here to showcase Linden, showcase the tourism product of Linden, and also showcase this new sport, tourism, evolving from Linden.”

At the inaugural championship, Harmony Secondary swept the competition and carted off the $100,000 up for grabs.

Linden Foundation Secondary was second, followed by New Silvercity Secondary, which occupied the third spot.

• Dr Deon Anderson, Elite Kayaking, Linden/Georgetown, Nature Tours, Watooka Guest House