THE National Sports Council’s Elite and Emerging athlete funding programme will soon be reviewed in the wake of Barbados’ performances at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games.
During those games which were held in Puerto Rico and Colombia, Barbados finished 11th overall with ten medals – three gold, two silver and five bronze – a decline from 19 (6-2-11) in 2006.
Erskine King, Director of Sports at the National Sports Council told NATIONSPORT the board would soon be meeting to determine the next step for those who were supported by the fund.Review
“After each major event – we had CAC, and the Pan Am Games are next year – we do a review. There are some [athletes] who may drop out or who may be pulled out of the programme or if they are found guilty of a performance enhancing drug, then the funding ceases,” King explained.
However, he declined to give his own assessment of Barbados’ performance which Barbados Olympic Association president Steve Stoute deemed “disappointing”, and has resulted in a reduced Barbados side to October 3 to 14 Commonwealth Games in India.
“I don’t want to prejudice the board, but the performance was not as good as previous CACs. These are the things we have to look at,” King said.
The programme has been in place for some time. There are elite athletes, emerging athletes and those in between.
Sydney Olympic bronze medallist Obadele Thompson, former Commonwealth Games gold medallist Andrea Blackett, and Olympians Barry Forde and Nicky Neckles were among the earliest recipients.
Sprinters Jade Bailey and Andrew Hinds; swimmers Terrance Haynes and Martyn Forde; boxers Junior Greenidge and Shawn Terry Cox; weightlifter Ivorn McKnee and several others have all benefited from the programme.
A new generation, which includes World champion Ryan Brathwaite, is now being looked after.
It is based on the four-year Olympic cycle, but is reviewed on an annual basis.
Part of the NSC’s development programme, the four main criteria are:
• Athletes should be in training for competition.
• Athletes should be in good standing with their national federation.
• Athletes should not be found guilty of using performance enhancing drugs.
• Athletes must submit reports at least quarterly, detailing their training and the use of the funds.
King said the programme had seen mixed results, but there was no evidence that it had been abused.
“Over the years, there are people who did reasonably well and we have had disappointments too. There are people who moved up the ladder and have been able to maintain a level of good performance, so it has had the desired effect, but we recognise there are some people who could have done better,” he said.
