By Neto Baptiste
Chef de Mission to the Commonwealth Games, Joel Rayne, said team Antigua and Barbuda should be fully assembled in Birmingham, England by Thursday of this week.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show from the Birmingham village, Rayne said one athlete arrived earlier this week with others expected to arrive within days.
“Swimmer Olivia Fuller arrived last evening [Monday] and within the last hour, Cejhae Greene, he landed in London and will be making his way to Birmingham and the rest of the team arrives tomorrow [Wednesday]. In terms of the Commonwealth Games, unlike the Olympics, we are staying at Birmingham University and there is also Warwick but because of our team size as we are only 13 athletes and officials, we are all grouped in one area per sé. Boxing, they are up basically the day after the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony is the 28th July,” he said.
The Commonwealth Games Association (CGA) named a 13-member squad last week for the July 28 to August 8 games.
Rayne said that travelling ahead of the team afforded him the opportunity to iron out a few kinks ahead of their arrival in Birmingham.
“Initially, as you know, the UK would have lifted the protocols in terms of testing to enter the UK. However, in order to receive your accreditation for the games you must do a Covid test but these things change so often that sometimes you miss certain things so when I arrived I didn’t have a pre-test because I didn’t realize we needed one but I was allowed to go through and later on, did my Covid test. Had I perhaps travelled with the entire team and all of us arrived without doing our pre-test then you could have imagine what controversy that would have caused,” he said.
Sprinters Cejhae Greene and Joella Lloyd headlines the country’s selections to the games. Darion Skerritt, Kalique St Jean and Taeco O’Garro will join Greene and Lloyd at the games as part of the track and field contingent. They will be coached by Evans Jones.
Stefano Mitchell, Ethan Stubbs-Green, Jadon Wuilliez and Olivia Fuller and coach Wayne Mitchell will represent in swimming while Pan American bronze medalist, Alston Ryan and Kagra Ryan will compete in the men’s and women’s division of boxing. They will be coached by Ralston Ryan.
Rounding off the selections are cyclists Jyme Bridges Jr and Conor Delanbanque, with the president of the cycling federation, St Clair Williams, accompanying them. Keston Daley will travel as the physiotherapist.