By Kiev Chesney
President of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) Claude Blackmore has denied that the AAG and Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) had named Joe Ryan, Assistant Coach at the Manhattan College, to coach Guyanese athletes at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
When contacted late yesterday Blackmore said: “The AAG has not yet named any coach to accompany our athletes to the Olympic Games. The only person that we have named as part of the athletics contingent is Cornel Rose, who will travel as the General Manager.”
It had been reported by a local newspaper that Ryan, who coached Guyana’s Allian Pompey to a Commonwealth gold medal in 2002, was named as the coach of the Guyana team for the Olympics.
Ryan’s appointment was also reported by a few regional websites such as caribbeanworldnews.com and ccwllc. net, along with the newspapers in Riverdale, New York, since April.
But Blackmore told Stabroek Sport that the AAG had until July to name their squad for the Olympics and that he had no knowledge whatsoever, of what had been reported by those newspapers.
He added that the AAG was not ready to make such a decision at this time saying… “We will cross that hurdle when we get there.”
