By Neto Baptiste
President of the Antigua and Barbuda Athletics Association (ABAA), Everton Cornelius, has debunked reports that a decision was taken during the body’s last executive meeting to dissolve the executive and host fresh elections within 90 days of doing so.
Speaking publicly for the first time since the registration debacle that saw the association miss two deadlines in which to submit names of athletes set to represent Antigua and Barbuda at the ongoing World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Lima, Peru, Cornelius said that decisions made at last Friday’s meeting are “not official”.
“It was mentioned but there was nothing officially documented to say this did this or that did that … so the vote being talked about never officially happened. We need to sit and document what we’re saying, move a motion and document who moved the motion and who did this or who did that and have it there in black and white so it can be presented,” he said.
Reports are that a motion to dissolve the executive and hold new elections within 90 days was moved and accepted by the executive although several members reportedly opted not to vote on the motion. The 90-day deadline was set to go into effect following a meeting with the general body.
Sprinters Kasiya Daley, Ajani Daley and Geolyna Dowdye, 2022 Under-17 Carifta gold medallist in the 100 meters, Dwayne Fleming and LaNica Locker had all qualified for the event. Locker had however, reportedly opted out of going to the meet.
“I must apologise — as the president of the association — to the athletes for this grave injustice that has been done to them. I looked at it from many different angles to see exactly how do we find ourselves in this particular situation. I’ve been in the organisation for over 50 years as a young man, as an athlete, as an administrator and as a coach … and we have never encountered a problem like this before,” Cornelius said.
The body’s third vice president, Dr Philmore Benjamin, tendered his resignation during Friday’s meeting, but Cornelius has refused to take blame for the incident, stating that he had placed Second VP Richard Lindsay in charge of the process.
“I am even of the view that in these types of organisations where it’s voluntary, [to] elect a president and allow the president to elect his staff, so you can blame him for everyting. Nobody has to work so you [as president] do all the work so people don’t have to work; they just do as they feel and when things go wrong they say talk with the president. The buck stops with the executive because all of us put up our hands to run the organisation,” the track and field boss said.
The association missed two deadlines by which to register the athletes for the event after they failed to respond to several email messages from World Athletics requesting that the process is finalised.
