Letter from London – Guyana and the Olympics
By Bruce-Malcolm Nobrega – July 24, 2012
London is buzzing, anxiously awaiting the arrival of all our Olympian guests, as well as the commencement of this great cavalcade of sport. We the Guyanese Diaspora in London and the U.K generally, are hoping to beam with pride at the sight of our own flag the golden arrowhead fluttering in the breeze, distinct from all others, even that of South Africa, which closely resembles ours. London is a city that now claims that ‘We are the World’ on account of every community on the planet being a part of this land, and we the Guyanese are here and want to cheer, not only for Team GB, our adopted land, nor for the athletes of other lands like Jamaica, because we don’t have the representatives out there, but for our own.
I remember, and not many people know this, is that Guyana in 1959, won the West Indies Athletic Championships. Yes we did … MacDonald Bailey, a great Trinidadian Olympian was our coach, and Guyana did not win the men’s sprints or/nor men’s middle distance races, although the talent was there, but where we dominated was in the women’s events. Guyanese women totally dominated 1-2-3- in almost every event. Track stars like Myrna Fawcett, Yvonne Smith, Claudette Maasdammer, Brenda Archer, Wilma Paris. It is believed that the female athletes owed their success to the talented coach Bertie Mc Dougall, who trained many of these outstanding athletes in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Continue reading
