Guyana’s NSC & GOA end relationship with GASA due to unfair practices

National Sports Commission (NSC) and the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) have decided to part ways with the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) over their belief that the current association executive does not have the best interests of its stakeholders at heart.

NSC and GOA’s decision comes after a two-year battle with GASA regarding its operations after complaints from swimmers, parents, coaches, and swim club executives.

In a joint statement, NSC and GOA explained their last straw with GASA had to do with the treatment of Guyanese-born swimmer Delroy Tyrell, who was seeking to represent his homeland after years of competing for Trinidad and Tobago.

The sporting bodies said they began meeting with GASA’s president Dwayne Scottand other executives to seek to resolve the issues which include biased selection processes, nepotism, and unfair treatment of clubs.

At a meeting in July 2023, the sporting bodies said they brought together Tyrell, GASA executives and the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson to deal specifically with the complaint that GASA was refusing to file his application to switch allegiance with World Aquatics.

“Scott accepted that Tyrell’s application satisfied the criteria for a change of nationality, and committed to submit Mr Tyrell’s documentation in two weeks immediately following that meeting,” GOA and the NSC said.

“Mr Scott subsequently went on record in the media stating that Mr Tyrell’s documentation was submitted to World Aquatics. On Sunday, 1st September 2024, it was reported in the media that Jan Exner, who serves as the World Aquatics Legal Counsel, issued a response indicating that no documentation was submitted to World Aquatics on behalf of Mr Tyrell by GASA.”

On September 6, 2024, another meeting was convened by the sports minister with members of the NSC and GOA for a response by the executive of GASA.

“At this meeting, it was confirmed that Mr Scott and GASA had never submitted Mr Tyrell’s documentation to World Aquatics. Additionally, it was established that Mr Scott and executives of GASA have maliciously and vindictively withheld Mr Tyrell’s documentation from World Aquatics to exclude him from representing Guyana at International meets,” the sporting bodies said.

“The NSC and the GOA remain firm in their stance that there is no room for bias, inequality, exclusion, and unethical practices in sport. It must be noted that this is not the first instance where Mr Scott and the executives of GASA sought to mislead the NSC and GOA and were not forthcoming with the truth. On another occasion, GASA sought to institute bans on two swim clubs based on the actions of a few members for two years.

“This action was represented by GASA at another joint meeting. Mr Scott and executives of GASA claimed that the ban on the two clubs holistically was based on a recommendation from World Aquatics. When asked to return in 48 hours with evidence of the recommendation, Mr Scott and the executives of GASA stated that they did not have any such recommendation and were unconstitutionally implementing sanctions without a fair hearing.”

The NSC and GOA said the constant inaction by GASA has convinced them “that the current executives of GASA do not have the best interest of swimmers and swimming in Guyana as their primary objective.”

NSC and GOA said they no longer recognise GASA as a sport association in good standing and will no longer engage with the current executive.

Moving forward, the NSC and GOA will engage World Aquatics to highlight the maladministration and the unethical acts being perpetuated by the current executives of GASA to the detriment of the swimmers in Guyana.