By Neto Baptiste
The ongoing suspension of two track & field officials over an alleged breach of protocol at a recent international meet held in Costa Rica, could be extended to the athlete in question.
This is according to President of the Antigua and Barbuda Athletics Association (ABAA), Everton “Mano” Cornelius, who said a decision will be made at the body’s next executive meeting slated for next week.
“I’ve made it clear to some of my executive members that it’s going to extend itself to the athlete and I said to them [executive] that I am giving you a chance to really look at this objectively, but we are not speaking of someone who is two or three [years old], but I would not want to really extend that discussion any further so from my perspective, I am looking at it wholesomely and that will be dealt with at our next meeting,” he said.
In October, the association announced it had suspended coach, Kesswin Anthony and Chef de Mission to the NACAC U18 and U23 Track and Field Championships, Joanne Small, following an alleged protocol breach. Reports are suggesting that a female athlete fell asleep in the coach’s room during the meet.
Cornelius said a committee has been put in place to look into the matter and that they could meet as early as next week.
“I did not send the matter to the disciplinary committee as yet because the athlete was still competing. I was waiting for everyone to be on the ground just in case the disciplinary committee needed to meet with them individually; [we needed to make sure] that everyone involved was here. Now, everyone is in place so the matter will be sent to the disciplinary for them to review the information that was forwarded to us from all the parties, and then based on their recommendation we will determine the way forward,” he said.
The former athlete however admitted that the association dropped the ball as far as insuring that all athletes and officials are fully aware of the protocols ahead of travel is concerned.
“On our end of it, I think we somewhat erred because yes, we do have, that and we have been using it, but somewhere along the line, maybe for the last two years, we haven’t used it, so it is something that I think fell through. Honestly, you change the executive and because you have to deal with so many different things at times, certain things you overlook and take that aspect of it for granted, but what we have been doing before is that once a team is leaving, especially when it comes to our junior athletes, then parents have to sign, athletes have to sign and coaches have to sign,” Cornelius said.
The matter has been the subject of national debate with some calling for a full-scale investigation.
