un­de­fined

This year's Sagi­cor Open Track and Field Cham­pi­onships now have a new date, Au­gust 13 and 14 at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um. Na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion of Ath­let­ic Ad­min­is­tra­tion (NAAA) pres­i­dent Ephraim Ser­rette, in mak­ing the an­nounce­ment of the new date yes­ter­day, said the resched­uled time was cho­sen to al­low T&T's pro­fes­sion­al ath­letes to par­tic­i­pate."These dates are the on­ly op­por­tu­ni­ty on the in­ter­na­tion­al track and field cal­en­dar to ac­com­mo­date our ath­letes with pro­fes­sion­al oblig­a­tions and would al­low for com­ple­tion of the lay­ing of the new track sur­face at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um."Ser­rette added that his as­so­ci­a­tion re­gret­ted the in­con­ve­nience caused to lo­cal and for­eign ath­letes who had plans to com­pete.The for­mer ath­lete al­so apol­o­gised to the spon­sors and fans and said all ef­fort will be made to en­sure a na­tion­al cham­pi­onship is held in 2011.

Ser­rette said the NAAA ex­ec­u­tive would seek to meet with Min­is­ter of Sport and Youth Af­fairs Anil Roberts to dis­cuss the reper­cus­sions of not stag­ing the Cham­pi­onships on the des­ig­nat­ed dates. One of is­sues to be raised is the com­pen­sa­tion for those ath­letes who have al­ready booked for this week­end when they re­turn on Au­gust 13 and 14.Ser­rette said the As­so­ci­a­tion was "un­of­fi­cial­ly banned" from vis­it­ing the sta­di­um. "On pre­vi­ous oc­ca­sions we were not al­lowed. We had to take sneak peeks. The ex­ec­u­tive was told that the site is a con­struc­tion area and the com­pound is a 'high­ly flam­ma­ble' spot. We don't want to get in­to that now."

When con­tact­ed on the "ban", Sport Com­pa­ny Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Spe­cial­ist Adri­an Ray­mond said that be­cause the sta­di­um was deemed a con­struc­tion site, per­sons wish­ing to view the track would have to in­di­cate in ad­vance. Ray­mond ex­plained that NAAA of­fi­cials turned up on Fri­day want­i­ng to see the fa­cil­i­ty with­out pri­or warn­ing and could not be ac­com­mo­dat­ed. Ray­mond al­so re­spond­ed to claims made by the lo­cal track and field body that none of its mem­bers were part of the de­ci­sion-mak­ing process with the choice of track or con­trac­tor, say­ing the sta­di­um is un­der the purview of the Sport Com­pa­ny as out­lined by the Cab­i­net. Ray­mond added that as sport­ing body, the NAAA is not part of the process.

NAAA wants track ready by Ju­ly 20

Games Chair­man Al­lan Ba­boolal said the as­so­ci­a­tion is giv­ing the Sport Com­pa­ny of T&T un­til Ju­ly 20 to com­pete the track. "By then we would have a clear in­di­ca­tion where the track will be ready for Au­gust 13 an 14."When asked about the re­lay­ing of the track, which be­gan in April, Bo­boolal re­spond­ed that the de­ci­sion was made by the Sport Com­pa­ny. "That was the call of the Sport Com­pa­ny. We in­di­cat­ed to them ear­ly last year that the track was not in the suit­able con­di­tion for the meet."He felt the work should have be­gun soon­er. "The Sport Com­pa­ny and the Gov­ern­ment in their wis­dom should have start­ed in the ap­pro­pri­ate time. Giv­en the sur­face be­ing put down it is not con­duc­tive to the type of weath­er we have."

Ba­boolal al­so added that the new date would al­low lo­cal ath­letes who are due com­pete in the Di­a­mond League meet on Au­gust 8 in Lon­don enough time to re­turn home. Ba­boolal ex­plained the Au­gust dates are close to the IAAF dead­line (Au­gust 15) for the World Cham­pi­onships in Deagu, South Ko­rea lat­er in the month."The fi­nal en­tries must be in on Au­gust 15 so on the sec­ond day of the cham­pi­onships and the se­lec­tion com­mit­tee will have to meet dur­ing the day and de­cide on the team."On the meet mov­ing to the Dwight Yorke Sta­di­um in Ba­co­let, To­ba­go, Ba­boolal said Ser­rette was on the is­land on the week­end and de­ter­mined that the track was not up to mark. On the loss­es so far, Ba­boolal said close to $200,000 had al­ready been spent.