Seaton off to Florida on FINA scholarship
…..Scott keen on ensuring Olympic hopefuls land sports in Tokyo
Newly elected president of the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA), Dwayne Scott is high on the country’s Olympic prospects following his ascension to office.
Scott, during a recent interview with Stabroek Sport, identified Leon Seaton Jr., who, a few days ago departed Guyana to take up a FINA scholarship in Florida and will spend the next five months preparing for the games.
Andrew Fowler and Aleka Persaud were the other two persons identified. The Tokyo Games were to be run off from July 2020, however the International Olympic Committee, because of the ongoing COVID – 19 pandemic, was forced to hit the reset button on the event, postponing it to 2021.
“We have three Olympic hopefuls,” Scott revealed.
He added: “We are working on all of them to get them prepared. It’s a good thing to have Leon (Seaton) on a scholarship programme and we have Andrew Flower who has just returned from his stint on a similar programme. Andrew is currently ongoing preparations while Aleka Persaud is also a hopeful as well.
“We are hoping that they can all make their required times and represent Guyana at the Olympics.”
To assist in Fowler’s and Persaud’s chances, Scott said that the association plans to approach the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport to aid in restoring the Lilliendaal facility which has been out of commission since the COVID-19 outbreak here in March.
“We have some other issues where the pool is out of commission but we are going to engage the Ministry of Sports to have that addressed,” Scott told this publication.
He further explained that although there are currently no competition guidelines, FINA has been disseminating information on how to resume training in a safe manner.