TT withdraws from Pan Am X Country Championships

JONATHAN RAMNANANSINGH

TT has withdrawn its participation from the 2020 Pan American Cross Country Championships due to various funding, visa, injury and weather complications.

This year’s meet runs off on February 29 in British Columbia, Canada, and will no longer feature TT’s quintet of young distance runners – Matthew Hagley, Sherwin Stapleton, Nicholas Romany, Iley Bruce and Shirvan Baboolal.

In a statement issued to the respective clubs/athletes involved by National Association of Athletics Administrations (NAAA) secretary, Dexter Voisin, on Wednesday, he outlined five challenges faced by the national governing body which forced the team’s unexpected pull-out.

“The NAAA TT is still to receive outstanding funding from SporTT for approved expenditures dating back to August 2019 and has not received funds for our 2020 activities. Some team members have not yet received their visas. There are injury concerns with one member. Weather conditions in Victoria continue to be unfavorable and the best available flight options do not allow the team to arrive with sufficient time to adjust,” Voisin stated.

After taking these issues into consideration, the board opted to withdraw the team and regretted any inconvenience caused. However, the statement affirmed the NAAA would honour its commitment to team members for funds expended in applying for their visas.

Speaking to NAAA president, Ephraim Serrette on Friday, he admitted the odds may have been stacked against the team considering the array of unavoidable hiccups. He made it clear the sport’s governing body had done its part by providing the required letters and paying the requested fees on behalf of the athletes.

According to Serrette, the athletes were solely responsible for the timely submission of their respective applications to the TT Immigration Office.

“The athletes’ inability to receive their visas is out of the hands of the NAAA. We don’t have control over that. That’s one of the reasons why for Carifta, we like to do a charter. Getting visas is always an issue. As the NAAA, we pay for the application and the athletes submit them, so it’s unfortunate,” he said.

The president of the local track and field governing body also highlighted a hefty cost of TT $20,000 per athlete to participate. He also noted the current temperature in British Columbia was very low, around ten degrees Celsius, and would pose an external test to the athletes, one which they could not anticipate or prepare for beforehand.

“There were other challenges. Because we had to first wait on the visa. They would have arrived at the venue just one day before competition. It’s really cold over there right now and it would not have given them enough time to acclimatise. It probably worked out in a way as a win-win. We always support all the competitions in our region, be it cross-country or any other athletic event,” Serrette.

It was also pointed out that several other Caribbean countries would be participating. Sadly, the national team has been hard at training since early January and have made huge sacrifices with work and travel to get group training in.