Dr Cliff Bertrand

Georgie rep­re­sent­ed East St.George as goal­keep­er against T.A.F.A. in 1938. He start­ed ath­let­ics in 1940 and was T&T sprint champ from 1944 to 1950. He was in the first ten fastest men in the world over 60 yards and shared the T&T 100 yards record of 9.6 sec. with Michael Agos­ti­ni and Ed­mund Tur­ton. In British Guiana, he record­ed of 9.4 sec 100 yards along­side Amer­i­can Har­ri­son Dil­lard. Georgie Lewis, Ari­ma's first Olympian, matched strides with world beat­ers as Bill Math­is, Bar­ney Ewell, Dil­lard and Roscoe Brown (US), Herb McK­en­ley (Ja­maica), John Trelor (Aus­tralia), Raphael For­tune (Cu­ba), Mc Don­ald Bai­ley, Michael Agos­ti­ni (T&T). Ari­ma loved Georgie. He in­spired a long list of cham­pi­ons and Olympians from our Bor­ough. Young Arim­i­ans-es­pe­cial­ly those who nev­er knew George Lewis-keep in mind that life has a height and depth, not com­pre­hend­ed com­plete­ly by the cal­en­dar. Georgie has passed on to you a rich lega­cy. He has hand­ed you the ba­ton. It is your re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to car­ry on the lega­cy. You know the sto­ries, told by your fam­i­ly, by the great ath­letes who have gone be­fore you, who paved the way for you, Georgie be­ing one of them. Cre­ate your sto­ry, pass it on. It is your lega­cy, your re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. Be­yond your per­son­al life, there is a pur­pose that holds to­geth­er, draw­ing as a mag­net draws steel, all these frag­ments of life. To feel this your­self and to ver­i­fy it your­self in your own way will be one of the great mo­ments in your life. The her­itage of the past has been con­firmed by the pres­ence and ab­sence of Georgie Lewis.