BARBADOS’ BEST is about to meet the best of the world.
Multi-Olympic and World Championship medallist Erin Hartwell has been tabbed to deliver the feature address during the Barbados Cycling Union’s grand awards ceremony at the National Union of Public Workers headquarters on Saturday.
Hartwell is set to headline the biggest night of local cycling, which will also feature two-time national road race champ Simon Clarke, Barbados’ top junior Russell Elcock and breakout rider Darren Matthews.
Matthews’ rise to prominence came following a breakout year that saw the talented teen turn in outstanding performances in his debut appearances at both the Commonwealth Games and the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games.
Matthews had ninth- and 14th-place finishes in the Commonwealth Games’ scratch and points races, respectively, in India after providing a sixth-place ride in the scratch race at Puerto Rico’s CAC Games.
But those efforts pale in comparison to those of the once top-rated American Hartwell, who won Olympic silver and bronze in the 1 000-metre time trial at the 1996 [Atlanta] and 1992 [Barcelona] Games, respectively.
A former national team director, Hartwell is the head of sports management business Athletics Cubed after serving as CEO of the Valley Preferred Cycling Centre.
“We felt that Hartwell, having known the history of Caribbean cycling, is in a position to speak to the future of where Caribbean cycling needs to go and the challenges that it will have in the future,” said BCU public relations officer Colin Forde. (JM)
