98 days to Pan Am Games in Mexico

– ambassador to Guyana anticipates biggest event yet

The 16th staging of the Pan American Games will be held in exactly 98 days in Guadalajara, Mexico, and since Guyana will be competing in this event, members of the delegation participated in the 100 days away celebration at the Mexican Embassy on July 6.

Mexican Ambassador to Guyana, Fernando Sandoval, said that Mexico is definitely ready to host the event, which will take place from October 14 to 30, and he expected it to be the biggest ever staging of the games. Sandoval said that the Games are the main sporting event after the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and prior to the 2012 London Olympic Games.

In fact, Sandoval also divulged that of the 36 sport disciplines featured at the meet, 16 of them will be used as qualifiers for the London Olympic Games.

“As the host country and with 100 days to the start of the games, we announce that we will receive with open arms all of our American friends, hoping that these will be the best Pan American and Para Pan American Games,” Sandoval said.

The Para Pan American Games will also be held in the Spanish speaking nation from November 12-20, and all 13 sports at the event will be used as qualifiers for the Para Olympic Games next year, according to Sandoval.

One of the Guyana Olympic Association’s (GOA) vice presidents, Noel Adonis, divulged that Guyana will have a delegation of 18 athletes at the games.

The delegation is predominantly comprised of the National Rugby Sevens side, the Mighty Jaguars, who qualified for the event by winning the Central American and Caribbean Sports Organisation (CACSO) Sevens Rugby Championships at the National Stadium a year ago.

President of the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU), Christopher ‘ Kit’ Nascimento, said it is a privilege to be the only team in the Caribbean playing at the games, in the first ever Pan American Games Sevens championships. Nascimento also stated that Guyana is ranked number six of eight and he hopes that his team does Guyana proud.

National 5000m and 1500m record holder Cleveland Forde, and overseas-based three-time Olympian Aliann Pompey have qualified for the event in track and field, according to Adonis. Both of the athletes represented Guyana at the Commonwealth Games in India last year, where Forde shattered the national 1500m record. That record-breaking performance was incidentally what qualified Forde to go to Pan Am. According to Adonis, the window for athletes to qualify is still open.

Adonis also mentioned that Adriann Spellin, who medalled at the South American Games in Medellin, Colombia last year, also qualified for the event and the games committee has moreover allotted two wildcard spots for the swimming fraternity. The wildcard spots will be for one male and one female athlete.

Five-time Sportswoman-of- the- Year Nicolette Fernandes also benefited from a wildcard spot to compete at the event. Fernandes, who recently won Guyana’s national women’s title, was granted the spot to participate in the individual tournament. Qualification for that event was open only to teams, but Guyana could not field an entire team to compete at the level of the prestigious event.

Fernandes captured silver at the 2006 Pan American Squash Championships and bronze in the 2010 edition of the event, but she has never participated in the Pan American Games (the multi-discipline format of the event). Since the event will be held about a month after her season begins, she hopes to warm up for the event with a few international tournaments in which she may also face some of the contenders from the tournament.