The Commonwealth gold medal won by Guyana's Aliann Pompey in the 400m at last year's Commonwealth Games in Manchester has been described as the highlight of the Amateur Athletic Association of Guyana's (AAAG) efforts.
This was disclosed by AAAG president Claude Blackmoore at the association's annual awards ceremony at the Windjammer Hotel Sunday night.
Blackmoore in his report disclosed that "The year 2002 must be recorded as the high point in my tenure as president when one considers the performance of the association during the reporting period. He mentioned that the committee organised and sanctioned some 12 competitions during last year.
He also disclosed that another four competitions had to be cancelled due to the spate of violent crime which affected the coastland and of those cancelled, the "Go Guyana Run Marathon" and the "Police Athletics Championships" had overseas athletes present in the country when they were cancelled.
Many of the competitions organised, were used by the association's Council as the basis for selection of teams to represent the country in International competitions, said Blackmoore.
Blackmoore said Pompey's win clearly demonstrated the close working relationship of his association with athletes based outside of Guyana.
One major setback of the AAAG during last year was the lack of finances and that area took the greatest part of their non-competition work, said Blackmoore.
Blackmoore stated that the association is at a stage where it has to move to the level of having paid staff if they are to continue to work in the required professional manner. He also mentioned the loss of hardworking treasurer, Bertram Hamilton, who died last year.
"This was a terrible blow to us, not only was Bertram always willing to go the extra mile, but he was very analytical and could often take an issue to its logical conclusion," Blackmoore said.
After Blackmoore's report the presentation to the honoured athletes was made. The junior female athlete and junior male athlete awards went to Michelle Vaughn and Cleveland Forde respectively.
The senior female award went to Nyota Peters while the senior male award was shared by Andre Blackman and Rawle Greene.
Christopher Fernandes and George Cave received honorary life membership awards.
The President's special award went to Diane Johnson, Orin Abel and Shanomae Blackmoore who are all competition officials while athlete, Jennifer Chichester, received an award for being the most improved athlete for last year.
After the awards, K.A Juman-Yassin delivered remarks which he termed "The Umbilical Cord Of Sport."
At the end of the ceremony, everyone present was engaged in one minute's silence in memory of Hamilton.