Gov’t will invest in local athletes’ development -Minister Henry

Georgetown, GINA, May 17, 2016

Minister within the Ministry of Education, Nicolette Henry said that the ground enhancement project under the Education Ministry’s Department of Culture Youth and Sport will provide the platform for athletes’ development.

“We are going to do a few in each region, so there will be no single region left out in the initial phase and as we move forward we want to ensure that we are inclusive,”  Minister Henry said as she spoke of the ground enhancement project.

The Minister noted that infrastructure plays a critical role in helping athletes develop their talent, and added that without adequate training facilities, they would not be able to perform well. “We have to make the type of investment in the infrastructure to ensure that they at least have the facilities where they can be trained,” the Minister stated.

In addition, investment will be made to make coaches available so that athletes can be trained in their respective disciplines. The Minister pointed out that, everything must be pre-planned before Guyanese will be able to perform well on the international level.

“It must be done through a strategic approach, and not until you are able to satisfy those pre-requisite requirements would you be in a position to speak about athletes going (overseas). It is one thing to go, but another thing to come back having performed well,” Minister Henry explained.

Additionally, sports should be used as a tool to foster young people’s development, she said. “…we will invest heavily in sports to ensure that the opportunities in sports will be able to merge with academic so that we create and produce much more rounded young people.”

Developing athletes who can perform well on the international stage is not something that can be done overnight. However, Minister Henry noted over the next four years government will be working on improving the quality of local athletes.