VP welcomes IOC/PASO visit

Vice President of the National Olympic Committee (NOC), Wilbur Harrigan, has described a pending visit from a joint International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Pan American Sports Organisation (PASO) committee as being both good and bad for the organisation here.
Harrigan, who has been at loggerheads with sitting NOC President, E.P. Chet Greene, over a number of issues including his decision to contest the pending elections, hopes the visit will solve the problems plaguing the NOC but adds that it does not speak well of the job they have been doing lately.
“I welcome the arrival of them in order to get a lot of the misunderstandings cleared up but I just want to say to you that they coming is not something that one should be very happy about because the fact that they are coming means we are not doing what we are supposed to be doing,” he said.
“If they were coming to aid us in development, I would have been very happy but under the reasons they are coming here, to solve domestic problems, it means then we have failed to do what we are supposed to be doing,” he added.
In a letter dated May 7, IOC/PASO informed the national body of its pending visit from May 19 to 20.
The main purpose of the visit, according to the mail, is “to meet with all the interested parties/bodies.” This, the letter added, includes members of the executive committee of the NOC, including Harrigan; the fencing federation and members of the general assembly.
Harrigan said he will play his part in helping to resolve the issues.
“IOC/PASO have summoned me and because I am genuinely interested in sports I will be there and early and I sincerely hope that they don’t have to come back. We don’t have a choice in the matter [resolving the issues] or else they will put in an interim body so we need to get it resolved and if it means that a couple of us have to step away from the plate then so be it,” he said.
The NOC, in December of last year, was forced to adjourn its annual general meeting as they sought clarity on a matter involving President of the Antigua and Barbuda Fencing Federation (ABFF), Kelesha Antoine.
The confusion hinged on whether or not Antoine had the authority to nominate one presidential candidate, Neil Cochrane, after her federation had allegedly voted internally to support Greene.
Antoine has denied the allegations that she wrongfully nominated Cochrane.
Upon completion of the pending visit, a report will be dispatched to the IOC and also to PASO.