Guyana’s brightest hope of medalling at the fourth Islamic Solidarity Games being held at Baku, Azerbaijan, sprinter Winston George, collected a silver medal yesterday (Wednesday) in the Men’s 400M final. This was the first medal won by Guyana at this year’s Games.
George was pipped by Ali Khamis Khamis of Bahrain who copped his country’s third athletics gold medal.
Khamis who was the Asian Games champion three years ago was pushed all the way by George, but he moved past the Guyanese athlete on the final straight to claim gold in 45.54 seconds in a thrilling race. George claimed silver in 45.69s ahead of the Iranian bronze medalist Ali Khadivar.
George, however, has another chance of winning gold in tomorrow’s 200-metre final, his entry time was the fastest thus far; this bodes well for Guyana’s bid to land a gold medal at the Islamic Games.
Guyana sent a delegation comprising of 17 athletes and six coaches to Azerbaijan who are competing in six different disciplines; athletics, swimming, boxing, table-tennis, taekwondo and judo.
Guyana has “high hopes” of medalling in all six sporting events but star 400-metre runner George is their main contender.
The sprinter had won Guyana’s two silver medals at the last Solidarity Games, held in Indonesia four years ago, he has since then competed at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing and the 2016 Rio Olympics where he carried his country’s flag at the opening ceremony.
Guyana have competed as the only country from South America at the two previous editions of the Solidarity Games in Saudi Arabia (2005) and Indonesia, but they have company this time in the shape of neighbours Suriname.
