The Guyana Government is committed to the safe return of the CARIFTA Games track and field team, Director of Sports, Steve Ninvalle said yesterday.
Ninvalle told Stabroek Sports yesterday that the safe and timely return of the Guyana contingent currently in The Bahamas was priority following reports that there were no confirmed flight arrangements for the team to return home after the championships ended last night in Nassau.
“The National Sports Commission, Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and by extension the Government of Guyana, has intervened and taken the responsibility to see the safe return of our CARIFTA Games team,” said Ninvalle yesterday.
Ninvalle said that the team is due to return home tonight.
The government, he said, will charter a flight out of The Bahamas to Cuba where the athletes will then return home via Caribbean Airlines.
“The priority for the Government of Guyana and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, is the safe and timely return of the team and as a consequence the government has charted a flight from The Bahamas to Cuba and then from Cuba to a Caribbean Airlines flight to Guyana. The government will fully fund this return leg and we wish to congratulate the team on their stellar performances thus far,” said Ninvalle.
Stabroek Sports understands that there were no concrete arrangements made for the team to return home as no tickets were purchased by the Athletic Association of Guyana (AAG) even for the team to leave.
The team left Guyana on Easter Saturday morning via a chartered flight to Cuba and then departed for The Bahamas via another chartered flight.
The absence of the requisite documents to leave Cuba, caused further delays in the time for the team to depart Cuba and the team, minus the athletes who travelled to The Bahamas via the USA and Jamaica, eventually reached The Bahamas shortly around 11am on Saturday.
The 16-member CARIFTA contingent is expected to depart The Bahamas around 7am today and arrive in Cuba around 830am.
They will then depart Havana around 525pm for Trinidad and will depart Trinidad at 920pm arriving in Guyana some one hour later.
Meanwhile the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) yesterday expressed concern with the latest development issuing a press release to that effect.
“The Guyana Olympic Association wishes to publicly outline that we view with grave worry and therefore feel inclined to express our concern over the management of Guyana’s national athletics team representing our country at the 50th CARIFTA Games being held in Nassau Bahamas under the stewardship of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG),” the release from the GOA stated.
“The executive committee of the Guyana Olympic Association provided support to the CARIFTA Games team based on a budget submitted by the AAG.
At the council meeting of the Guyana Olympic Association we were told by the Mr. Hutson (Aubrey), President AAG in his report on the AAG activities that all systems were in place for Guyana’s athletics team’s participation at the games and he would like to place on record the AAG’s gratitude for the support received from the GOA and NSC, which sentiments seemed to be indicative of the teams readiness for participation in the games,” the release added.
“These notions were further corroborated by statements attributed to Mr. Hutson in the press which indicated the AAG received all the required funds amounting to the nine million (9m) dollars budget required to cover all of the related expenditure.
“Upon hearing of the issues of mismanagement on the evening of Friday 7th April 2023, and based on the negative reports emanating from athletes, coaches, the media, social media, and parents, the Executive Committee, in its concern, sent emails and delivered letters to the President and members of the executive committee of the AAG seeking a meeting at 3.00 pm on Saturday 8th April 2023 at the GOA building, to ascertain if the reports emanating were true, the basis for these developments and offering the GOA’s support to assist with any challenges the team may be facing.
“However, to date there has not been the courtesy of a response from the AAG President or any other member of the AAG executive and efforts to make contact with or engage them have proved futile.
“The Executive Committee of the Guyana Olympic Association believes this issue is a significant one that undermines both our country’s interests and good governance, further we believe that these issues of poor management are alarming and disappointing and does not augur well for the positive advancement of sports in Guyana.
“In the absence of any response or communication from the AAG, the executive committee of the Guyana Olympic Association’s primary priority at this moment is currently predicated on working with other stakeholders to ensure that our athletes and members of our delegation are well catered for and return safely to their homes.”
The GOA stated that it wanted to applaud the athletes for persevering in the face of adversity.
“Your sacrifice and exploits brought national pride to all Guyanese for which we are truly grateful.
“We wish to assure you and all other athletes that we will be working assiduously to ascertain the basis of this position, to redress this calamitous situation and to ensure that there is never a future reoccurrence of this unacceptable status quo,” the release from the GOA ended.
