Pres­i­dent of the T&T Cy­cling Fed­er­a­tion (TTCF) Rowe­na Williams was elect­ed sec­ond vice pres­i­dent of the Caribbean Cy­cling Union (CCU) at the Union’s an­nu­al gen­er­al meet­ing (AGM) in Guade­loupe on Sat­ur­day.

Jorge Blas of the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic got the nod for pres­i­dent re­plac­ing Trevor Sailor Bai­ley of St Vin­cent and the Grenadines, who did not vie for an­oth­er term. Bai­ley served as head of the CCU since its in­cep­tion in 2011. St Lu­cian Cyrl Man­gal is the First Vice Pres­i­dent with Sharon Lowe of An­guil­la Sec­re­tary and Bermu­da’s Pe­ter Dunne, Trea­sur­er.

The Mem­bers cho­sen are Hen­ny Bonafa­cio (Cu­ra­cao), Don­na Kay Sharpe (Ja­maica), Ed­sel Rom­ney (Dutch St Maarten) and Charles Lynch (Bar­ba­dos). The elect­ed mem­bers will serve for four years.

The AGM was held dur­ing the Caribbean Road Rac­ing Cham­pi­onships.

Out­go­ing pres­i­dent Bai­ley high­light­ed the es­tab­lish­ment of the In­ter­na­tion­al Cy­cling Union (UCI) Satel­lite fa­cil­i­ty at the Na­tion­al Cy­cling Cen­tre in Bal­main, Cou­va, as one of CCU’s ac­com­plish­ments dur­ing the last term.

“It has been ev­i­dent through our Caribbean Cham­pi­onships that our Caribbean Na­tions are rich in tal­ent. The ath­letes we have pro­duced have ex­celled and even be­come mem­bers of pro­fes­sion­al teams. As we show­case our ath­letes’ tal­ents to the world, they are the dri­ving force of the Caribbean Cy­cling Union. The part­ner­ships we have de­vel­oped with Union Cy­cliste In­ter­na­tionale (UCI) and Pan Amer­i­can Cy­cling Fed­er­a­tion, Con­fed­era­cion Panamer­i­cana de Ci­clis­mo (CO­PACI) have shaped the way for the Satel­lite Cen­tre in Trinidad and To­ba­go which be­came a re­al­i­ty on De­cem­ber 3rd 2022,” said Bai­ley, who is the cur­rent pres­i­dent of the Pan Am Cy­cling body, said the re­gion­al com­mu­ni­ty is been re­cov­er­ing from the im­pact of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

“Over the past three years, we have faced in­cred­i­ble chal­lenges, in­clud­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and the erup­tion of La Soufriere Vol­cano in St Vin­cent and the Grenadines. All of us were af­fect­ed by earth­quakes, hur­ri­canes, and the cur­rent eco­nom­ic sit­u­a­tion. As a re­sult of the changes in the world, many of our cy­cling events were post­poned or can­celled, caus­ing many set­backs and ham­per­ing com­pet­i­tive­ness among ath­letes. In spite of these chal­lenges, we were able to find ways to cope, over­come ob­sta­cles, and find so­lu­tions that were vi­tal to the sport’s fu­ture growth and sta­bil­i­ty.”

—Clay­ton Clarke