Sports for All

―2019 Special School Sports wraps up

―Plans to include event during Nationals in 2020 and beyond

DPI, Guyana Friday, November 29, 2019

This year, the Fourth Annual Special School Sports saw increased participation with 385 students from across the country. With this in mind, Director of Sport Christopher Jones hopes to host this event the Inter-School Nationals next year.

“Not only is the event guaranteed to take place next year, but we will also be pushing at the level of the National Sports Commission (NSC) to have the special needs sports hosted at the same time as the Inter-Schools Nationals. When we started four years ago the students with disabilities felt left out because while their peers were competing in the Nationals, they were not a part of it,” he told the Department of Public Information (DPI).

The Sports Director said those who have participated since the launch of the annual competition have not only grown but engaged better with each other.

The final leg of the annual Special Schools Sports, on Friday, was held at the Leonora Track and Field Centre where the young athletes enjoyed themselves to the fullest.

Tashawn Griffith, a student attached to the Open-Door Centre said that his participation for the last four years has been exciting and he would not trade the experience. “It feels so amazing … but to be honest, I did not know that I would have won because I thought that everyone was ahead of me and I assumed the victory was theirs,” he added.

Gifted Hands Learning for Children, student, Sasha Summar said she, “always wanted to participate in events like this,” and now that she has the opportunity, is grateful for the experience.

Like Tashawn and Sasha, Raj Melville, from the Diamond Special Needs School told DPI “I glad that I came out and ran and thoroughly enjoyed myself”.

This year’s competition took a different route, unlike the previous years. According to Jones, the event has moved from a half-day competition to three days this year with the students competing in football, in-door cricket, bocce ball, swimming and track and field events.

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