By Kiev Chesney
The Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) said that the reason for them giving up the two spaces for the athletes for the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India was because they could not fund an official to accompany the athletes since the tour was not budgeted for at the beginning of the year.
When members of the AAG council met with members of the media at Olympic House on Friday morning, the above reason was given by the association for passing up the chance to send two of its athletes to the Commonwealth Youth Games.
President of the AAG Claude Blackmore said that after learning that the cost of the ticket for the official would be around US$2600, the council met and agreed to give the two spaces to the other sports federations.
Blackmore also said that when the AAG prepared its budget and they made provisions for international events and they gave the IAAF tours priority, as attending such tours would keep them in ‘good standing’ with the IAAF.
The AAG president said that this decision was made by its council some three months ago and he did not know why it had only now been released to the media by the Guyana Olympic Association.
When asked what efforts were made by the AAG to raise the money needed to send the official, AAG president said that none were made since they had already evaluated their income generating capacity, and realised that they would not be able to come up with that much money.
Lastly, Blackmore said that although his association does not see eye to eye with the GOA on some matters the two associations are still on terms contrary to recent speculations.
