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 Sep 25, 2017 

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The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) concluded its two-day regional meeting of the Americas and the Caribbean yesterday at the Guyana Olympic Association’s head office at Lilliendaal, where the meeting was held.

Guyana hosted 16 countries, while 4 countries were unable to attend due to the recent hurricanes. The initial day, Saturday, saw the commonwealth representatives of the Americas and Caribbean participating in workshops. Those workshops included procedures in getting the Caribbean and Americas in line with the new governance structures of the Commonwealth Games Federation, match-fixing, gender equity in addition to setting up a fund for the hurricane affected member countries.
Yesterday, the final day of the meeting, the CGF Americas and Caribbean group heard from the Regional Anti-Doping Agency (RADO) and representatives from the Gold Coast; the host for next year’s 21st Commonwealth Games. The 21st Commonwealth Games will be held in the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia from April 4-15, 2018.
When quizzed on the Guyana’s chances of hosting a Commonwealth Games of their own in the near future, head of the CGF Louise Martin, tepidly replied, “I would love to see the games coming here (in Guyana) but it may be a while before the senior games can be hosted in Guyana because these are huge events with 6000 athletes and officials. The junior Games which were last hosted in the Bahamas would be the right size for the small countries.”
In addition, Louise Martin, gleefully expressed to the press yesterday afternoon at the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) board room, “It’s been a very good two days and we (CGF Americas and Caribbean group) have got a lot of work done in this short space of time. It’s been a good experience in Guyana.”
Louise Martin who was the first woman to be appointed as the CGF’s Honorary Secretary, a role she has held since 1999 before stepping up as President in 2015, posited that she was impressed with the elaborate structure of the new multimillion dollar GOA head office. “This is second to none, this is unbelievable and I’m quite sure that the other CGA’s (commonwealth games associations) will go back home with intent in trying to achieve something like this”, Martin explained
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