Roberts dissatisfied with reasons for CCCAN absences
Minister of Sport Anil Roberts demanded parents and representatives indicate in writing the reasons for their swimmers’ unavailability for the Central American and Caribbean Age Group Swimming
Championships (CCCAN) after dismissing their original reasons in a face-to-face meeting on Thursday.
And Lindsay Gillette, president of the Amateur Swimming Association of Trinidad and Tobago (ASATT) has received an extension to the deadline for entries to the June 29-July 7 CCCAN Games in Costa Rica from the organisers to today, trying to facilitate a “window of opportunity” for the nine national swimmers who were declared unavailable last week.
This although ASATT had already submitted their final entries to the games organisers on Wednesday, one day after the CCCAN selection meeting.
The Trinidad Express understands that ASATT used their good relationship with the first president of the CCCAN from the English-speaking Caribbean, Barbadian Errol Clarke to secure the extension.
On Thursday, Roberts asked the parents and representatives to make a decision about their children’s participation/availability and submit the decision in writing in a meeting that involved ASATT officials, parents and representatives of the unavailable swimmers at the Minister’s headquarters on Abercromby Street, Port of Spain. Sources who attended the meeting said Roberts, who had been in Parliament for close to 20 hours prior to meeting with ASATT officials, said commitment to national duty trumped everything. He dismissed out of hand the excuses, which ranged from sickness without a certificate to unavailability and to participation in alternative non-national team meetings and training.
According to a correspondence from ASATT president Gillette, Roberts “expressed his disappointment and displeasure with what seemed to be the apparent ‘boycott’ by these senior athletes both locally- and foreign-based and sought explanations for same”.
A source, who wished to remain anonymous because he was not authorised to disclose the details of the meeting, said one parent claimed not to be aware that the ASATT was sending a swim team to the June 29-July 7 CCCAN Games.
ASATT officials said at that meeting that they had at no time advised that the CCCAN meeting was off or that T&T was not going to send a team to the Costa Rica Games.
Roberts also sought clarification on who was representing Dylan Carter, a member of the Davies Nadadores Swim Club in Florida since August 2012, as Aerios Aquatics coach Franz Huggins had initially written ASATT on June 2 stating multiple Carifta and CCCAN medallists Carter and Joshua Romany were unavailable. The source said Huggins admitted he was not authorised to speak for Carter.
Another source said Roberts gave the example of Suriname 1988 Soeul Olympic medallist Anthony Nesty and Trinidad and Tobago’s 2004 Athens bronze medallist George Bovell as swimmers who were world ranked in senior swimming and still competed in Caribbean Islands Swimming Championships (CISC), a lower level age-group competition than CCCAN, on their way to world standard performances.
Following the meeting with Roberts, swimmers’ parents and their representatives held a meeting with ASATT officials.
On Friday, Gillette issued a memo to swim clubs and representatives updating them on the CCCAN developments.
Up to press time last night, parents and/or representatives of none of the nine unavailable swimmers--which also include US-based Alexandra Donahue and Tyla Martin, both multiple Carifta gold medallists, Canada-based Adrian Goin, UK-based Rebecca Marshall and Hannah Chatfield, US-based Emiro Goossen, and the local based Jonathan Ramkissoon--had submitted written documents.