Four athletes selected for Athens Olympic Games …
Dr Bowman to attend anti-doping course
By Leeron Brumell
Guyana Chronicle
July 10, 2004
THE Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) yesterday announced a four-man team for the Athens Olympic Games, scheduled for Greece from August 13 to 29 and selected an official to attend a Sports Medicine and Anti-doping Course in Brunei, Darussalam.
Guyana's team to Athens will have four athletes with the possibility of four or five officials.
Aliann Pompey and Marian Burnett will represent Guyana in the athletics, while there is one athlete for swimming in Onan Thom, a Lindener but residing and training in Trinidad and Tobago, and a late inclusion in weightlifter Julian McWatt, who resides in England.
McWatt gained the wild card draw for the summer Olympic Games.
Garfield Wiltshire is the Chef de Mission while the officials for the respective disciplines were not named.
Athletics will have one concrete official with the possibility of a second in either coach of Burnett or Pompey.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday at Olympic House, Church and Peter Rose Streets, Queenstown, president of the GOA, K. Juman-Yassin, said that the Amateur Athletics Association (AAA) nominated the ‘concrete official’ for athletics.
Yassin added that the GOA had the option of having another official accredited to the games and Burnett’s coach made the request for such to be done.
The GOA has also sent out an invitation to Pompey’s coach but up to press time no word had been received from him.
Yassin said that should he accept, the GOA would then have to decide who would be the official.
“For me, if we can take both of the coaches it would be good because from Guyana it would be saying thanks to these coaches who have helped these two athletes to get where they are.”
Meanwhile, Dr Clive Bowman has been selected by the GOA to attend a sports medicine and anti-doping course in Brunei from July 24-28.
The course has been hosted and sponsored by the Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation (ISSF).
At this juncture when the sport industry is being plagued with drug cheats Dr. Bowman will be departing Guyana on July 21 for the seminar, which is expected to greatly benefit the country.
Yassin said that all are pleased with the invitation to have an official at such a seminar.
“We are very grateful and happy with the support we receive from time to time from the doctors in our community. We need to get the support of our professionals and we are happy that some doctors have been very cooperative.”
As a result of such a partnership between the GOA and the health community, Yassin said a Medical Commission has been set up.
Bowman has been working along with the association for a number of years in the various sporting disciplines.