The Guyana Olympic Association put itself in a bit of a sticky situation. For the record,
Adam Harris,
(click here to see his my space page) an"
United States competitor of
Guyanese origin, was included on the team to replace previous wild card entrant
Cleveland Forde, the local born and bred long-distance track and field specialist. Harris made the Guyana team with a ‘B’ qualifying standard, doing so by the narrowest of margins. In other words, his credentials suggest he will only be in Beijing to make numbers in one of the marquee athletics events. And he is not the first such competitor who has come in from overseas and used their connections to attend the world’s greatest sports event on
Guyana’s behalf. In the 1996 and 2000,
Atlanta and Sydney Games, a number of overseas competitors enjoyed the luxury Harris is about to enjoy and were never heard from again.
In Harris’ s case, he didn’t even have to show up. For starters, he has never set foot in Guyana and surely doesn’t know the difference between the National Park and the National Cricket Stadium. This is a grave injustice to local athletes who endure the tortures of staying in the sport, having little reward to expect while dealing with an odious national athletics governing body, enduring medieval type facilities and the dire economic hardships amateur sports competitors face in Guyana. This is not a campaign against athletes who live overseas and want to represent Guyana, rather it is an urging for better management of Guyana’s sport, in this case, the Olympic disciplines." This is a snippet of Adam's My Space page profile " What up i'm Adam Harris. I like to Breakdance, do Flips and i like to do a lot of illegal things that involve getting chased by the cops. I hang out with a bunch of street racers, dancers, and athletes. this is bout to be my 8th year of track and i'm a sophmore at the University of Michigan." May be this is why, the GOA decided to pick Adam , they realize he is use to running away from police, on a regular.
"Any athlete who wants to represent Guyana should be welcome, but their selection must be justified, instead of being farcical. f we are going to make up numbers at the Olympics track and field events we should so do with the locals – the ones like Rawle Greene and others who have competed tirelessly for many years despite unrelenting hostile circumstances. Green does not have the Olympics qualifying 200m `B’ standard which happens to be identical to Harris’ best time or the ‘A’ requirement. Neither do any of the active local competitors.
But they deserve some reward for their blood, sweat and tears.
Forde, a three-time Junior Carifta Games gold medalist, has not shown progress despite given exposure in the past, including specialized training in Kenya and at the Commonwealth Games and World Championships, and should not feel aggrieved at having his wild card entrée removed with Harris’ s selection.
But it should not have been caused by a foreigner without the necessary credentials, who has never raced on the grass tracks at home or at smaller competitions like the CAC Games, Pan American Games or Commonwealth Games. Over the years, Guyana has been represented at major world competitions primarily by Aliann Pompey and Marian Burnett, both based overseas. But their selections have been justified. They represented Guyana from the bottom coming up and won medals at the Commonwealth and Pan American Games and had to attain `A’ standard qualifying times for the Athens and Beijing Games."
Source: Stabroek News (written by Orin Davidson)
I tuned in the Olympics yesterday and all the blasted people talking about is USA runners non stop. Anyways, it was one of the Women's 400 m semi finals, and to my surprise I realize Guyana was being represented. Alianna Pompey ran her ass off, she started so good, even the commentators who didn't even mention her name at the start up line, started to comment on "Pomp-hay running good and Pomp-hay from Guyana is coming around the turn strong" the commentator even forgot about her US athlete, that she was bigging up before the race. In actuality Pompey ran a strong 200 meters but on the straight away she was in second place then drifted to third then, when they were at the 50 m mark she faded into fourth. However she really ran well, she even beat the American chick that the commentators were bigging up at the starting line. She really did good and I am proud of her, she made it into the semis and even made the commentators take notice of her. Sadly I don't think she made it into the finals, because the top two moved on to the finals. However I have to say, Kudos to you Miss Pompey!!!!! the best Guyanese performance I've seen so far. To have a look at the times she ran click here.
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