CAC hopefuls wing out for El Salvador
By Donald Duff
Stabroek News
November 20, 2002
A confident 20-member team of 16 athletes and four officials will wing out today for El Salvador to participate in the 19th Central American and Caribbean Games which begins on Saturday and climaxes December 7.
The team will be led by chef-de-mission Garfield Wiltshire who will double as squash team manager. The other officials are Charles Woon-A-Tai - karate, Aubrey Smith - weightlifting and Terrence Poole - boxing.
The disciplines Guyana will contest where they will hope to be among the medal winners are squash, boxing, karate, athletics, weightlifting and table tennis and 32 countries are expected to participate at the games which will be held in the city of San Salvador.
Guyana’s hopes of landing medals will rest with the squash team headed by former world rated player Maxim Weithers. Weithers,
reigning CARASRA champion, Luke Fraser, current national champion Sean Badrinauth and Robert Fernandes will comprise the men’s team.
The female team will comprise Nicolette Fernandes, former Southern Caribbean squash champion Gillian Griffith who resides in England and Kathy Shuffler.
Fernandes, who is training in England, will travel directly to the games.
Marvin Singh and David Hardy will fight to be on the podium at karate. Charles Woon-A-Tai will serve as their manager/coach while Terrence Poole will serve as manager/coach of the two man boxing team of Paul Lewis and Lennox Alleyne.
Nyota Peters is the only athlete selected and she will compete in the heptathlon.
Like squash, weightlifting also has an overseas-based athlete in Julian Mc Watt who resides in England. Mc Watt, who also represented Guyana at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England in July will travel straight to El Salvador, manager of the weightlifting team Aubrey Smith disclosed yesterday.
The lone table tennis player is former national champion Godfrey Munroe. He will compete in the individual events.
The GOA subsidised the cost of the contingent participating in the games by providing 50 per cent of the funding necessary while the associations paid the other half of the expenses.
A GOA official yesterday disclosed that the government has failed to contribute to the team’s participation.
“The government informed us on Friday that they do not have any money and as such they cannot afford to help us this time,” the official said yesterday.
The GOA had written the government requesting assistance to send the team to the CAC Games.
The government had assisted the GOA by providing half the cost of Guyana’s Commonwealth Games participation.
