MD: Do you have any problem not receiving assistance from the government of Guyana?

AP: Ammm, You know, honestly yes, but these are problems that I can overcome. If no one in Guyana decides to help me financially, that doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop running. I’ve been working, I’ve been going to school this far for the last seven years, on my own, doing it, so...just because Guyana decides, well...we’re not going to help her, we’re not going to acknowledge she needs help, it doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop, and it doesn’t mean that I’m not going to represent Guyana anymore.

MD: How far do you plan to go in your athletic career?

AP: All the way, I’m not doing it just to win the Commonwealth Games, I’m not doing it just to break the Guyanese national record. I really believe that I have some talent and endless potential. But I don’t know what that potential is going to manifest itself as, so I’m hoping it means an Olympic gold. I’m hoping it means, a Pan American Gold, I’m hoping it means a World Championships Gold, but I can’t say that. Life is too unpredictable, a lot can happen between now and then, so I don’t know.

MD: How far are you off from the world record?

AP: Everyone is far off from the world record. The world record is 47 something (47.60 by Marita Koch in 1985), and this year no one has even broken 49 seconds, so everybody is a bit off from that.

MD: Are you happy with the coach you have now?

AP: I’m very happy. I think we work very well together. He knows me, he knows when to push me and when to back off. We have a very trusting relationship, in that I can tell him, “you know, honestly I don’t feel that this is going to work for me right now “ and he won’t take it that I’m just being lazy or I don’t want to do the work. So we have that type of relationship.

MD: Do you have to pay your coach?

AP: No I don’t, and that’s not the only reason he’s my favourite person I don’t have anything to pay my coach! It’s just that over the years I’ve developed a relationship with him. After I graduated from college where I had achieved a lot, I felt like, I have a lot more left in me and I said I wanted to continue running, and I said “Will you coach me? I don’t have the money, I don’t have the resources. All I can promise you is that if I win a race and somebody says something, I would say, ‘I would like to thank my coach.’” And that was all I could have promised him at the time, and he said yes, and so he is still my coach since then.

MD: Is he a level three coach?

AP: They don’t do it that way in the U.S. He used to be the head women’s coach at Manhattan College, and right now he is the head of the sprinting programme they have there, and he also trains me and a few other open athletes.

MD: What do you think government can do to assist athletes in Guyana?

AP: Well...you know, I’m looking at this track here (Uitvlugt Community Centre) and, I would say that would be a nice way to start. If you want to develop track and field athletes, you need a place for them to run, a place for them to practise. There’s really nowhere in the world, where you’re going to have a track meet on this type of track, and I’m not just saying that because it’s an automatic response, that you need a track. I think if Guyana had a track, it would be able to host international track meets. I see some of the Bajan (Barbados) athletes are here anyway, but imagine if you had a synthetic track or another type of track, the type of support you can get from the rest of the West Indies. Guyana could then bid for the next Pan American Games, the next Commonwealth Games. It not only helps the athletes, it helps the country economically, because through tourism, it brings a lot of people to the country, that’s why I think sports is a very important activity in the country and needs to be explored.

MD: In the absence of a synthetic track in Guyana, do you think local athletes need to go overseas for training?

AP: I think it could be done to a certain level here, but I think it would be especially hard for say, short sprinters (200-metre). If you are sprinting like at the back here (400-metre second bend) there are some holes. If you are a short sprinter and you are sprinting at top speed into that situation, into that type of track, you’re prone to hurt your ankle, pull a muscle, that type of thing. So I think to a certain level, sure...distances...you could possibly achieve it here. But without a track, it will be hard and almost impossible for the shorter sprinters.

MD: From the few races you have seen here (Barry Massay Memorial meet), do you see any potential?

AP: I do, I saw the men’s 400 yesterday and the 200 today. I don’t know who the person is (Keith Roberts) that won, he looks very good.

MD: What do you think can be done to harness his (Roberts) potential?

AP: Well, he has very good technique and I think plain and simple, a stable training area...training surface. I was looking at him because he was so very far in front, it was hard to look at the rest of them. I kind of pay attention to people’s technique, and from what I saw, he had the best and he caught my eye. By the time I realised I could look at other people, they were done running.

MD: Being an unknown athlete from an unknown country, how does it feel at international meets?

AP: I’m actually used to being the underdog. My college was a very small, private one, and I was actually the first woman in that school to win the national championships, and I was the first person to set a national collegiate record as well. So being kind of unknown at a certain level, I’m used to that. Even in high school, when I first started running, no one really knew me; they knew of my sister, so the situation just keeps repeating itself throughout history, so it’s something I’m used to.

MD: Do the more established names get better treatment than you at these meets?

AP: They do, but it’s to be expected. I’m kind of very shy and introverted, so sometimes all of the attention would kind of make me unsettled. So I can’t complain that they get better treatment or they get more attention than I do.