Guyanese 2017 CARIFTA athletes to get University Scholarships

Guyanese 2017  CARIFTA athletes to get University Scholarships

Director of Sport, Christopher Jones, on Friday evening  announced that the 12-member team that attended the CARIFITA  Games in Curacao last weekend will all be awarded full scholarships to the University of Guyana, compliments of  the National Sports Commission. 

The announcement  came on the heels of Jones advocating for  more student/athletes scholarships to those  remain a specific discipline, reaping both success in the classroom and on the field.
 He had stated in a recent interview that “Student athletes who remain in a sport programme and keep their grades up  when  he/she reaches the age 17 or 18 should be provided with a scholarship by the government”.  

 He went unto say, “once that policy is adopted and we are able to say this in sundry to all in Guyana, it encourages parents to make sure their children keep their grades up and  stick to sports”.

 The policy is an attempt to integrate various sport disciplines into the school curriculum  which could be  done as early as September, once the Education Ministry and  the NSC can decide which disciplines are applicable.

Guyanese athletes were more than jubilant at the  event as their medal haul ended with  eight medals (four Gold, one silver, three bronze) as compared to 2016 where they finished with a total of five medals (two bronze and three silver).

The highlight for the team was Linden’s Compton Caesar’s historic win in the Boys’ Under-20 100m dash. It was the first time in the history of the CARIFTA Games, which started in 1972, that a Guyanese has won the male 100m; Caesar also took the bronze in the 200m.

The other gold medallists were fellow Lindener Chantoba Bright, overseas-based athlete Natricia Hooper, and distance runner Claudrice McKoy. McKoy also has a bronze medal from the Girls’ Under-18 1500m while Anfernee Headecker won silver in the boy’s event.

The other members of the team included: Kenisha Phillips, Onasha Rogers, Tremaine Browne,  Daniel Williams, Tarique Boyle,  Matthew McKenzie and Samuel Lynch.

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