LOOKS LIKE CYCLING will be represented in Mexico after all.
And by the best, no less.
Reigning national road race champ Darren Matthews has been given the green light to take his talents to Guadalajara, Mexico, as the country’s lone cyclist at next month’s Pan American Games.
Barbados Olympic Association (BOA) operations manager Glyne Clarke confirmed Matthew’s participation in the games less than two weeks after announcing that no cyclist had qualified for the first time in over a decade.
“Barbados was recently a wild card for a cyclist to compete on the road and the track but before that we didn’t have a single rider qualify for any of the Pan Am Games’ events,” explained Clarke in a telephone interview with WEEKEND SPORT.
“We then informed the Barbados Cycling Union (BCU) and they made the decision to select Darren.”
The heir apparent to the once world-rated Barry Forde, cycling’s newest wonder-kid has been delivering on the promise he’s shown for the last two seasons by sweeping the National Road Race and time trial championships earlier this year.
This is after the fast-rising 20-year-old first broke onto the scene last year with breakout performances in debut showings at both the Central American and Caribbean Games (CAC) and Commonwealth Games.
They featured a sixth-placed scratch race finish at the CAC Games, along with ninth and 14th place showings in the Commonwealth Games’ scratch and points races, respectively.
Matthews is set to turn his attention towards the road race for this meet, though, while his status for the omnium is still up in the air.
“He’s been in great form on the road this year, but he’s going as one person, so that is a major minus for him as he will be going up against countries with at least six riders per team,” said BCU public relations officer Colin Forde.
“As for the omnium, that’s a race you really can’t predict because it’s made up of about seven events on the track, so we just have to see how it goes.”
Just over 50 athletes have been shortlisted, even though the full squad for the October 14 to 30 games has yet to be ratified.
What is certain, though, is that Barbados will be without top medal prospects Ryan Brathwaite and Bradley Ally, who have both suffered setbacks this season and are focusing their training towards the 2012 Olympic Games.
Their absence threatens to guarantee Barbados of yet another subpar showing at a major meet after the country returned from both the Commonwealth Games and this year’s IAAF World Championships without a single medal.
“Realistically, without our top athletes we are not expecting medals from this squad,” said Clarke.
“We’re hoping for some good performers, some personal bests and even a couple athletes making some finals. Our best bet may be with both of our hockey teams.”
At the CAC Games, Barbados picked up a mere ten medals, nine adrift of the country’s record medal haul in 2006.
