INDIA might have a problem offering satisfactory lodgings for the Commonwealth Games.
Barbados could have issues just providing satisfactory performances.
World champion hurdler Ryan Brathwaite is the latest local elite athlete to opt out of competing at the international meet, leaving the country devoid of major medal hopefuls less than two weeks away from the start of the Delhi Games.
Word of Brathwaite’s decision comes as the 22-year-old track star prepares to rebound from a sub-par 2010 season.
“Basically, he wants to start preparation for the World Championships and he felt he couldn’t do that competing all the way down in October,” explained local athletics chief Esther Maynard.
“He is not injured as such, but he just returned to Oklahoma to resume his training regime with coach Matt Kane.”
The 110-metre hurdles specialist didn’t live up to his best performance (13.14 seconds in last year’s World Championship-winning final), battling minor injures and a failed experiment in his training regime and technique which led to him not breaking the 13.3-second barrier in 2010.
“This was not a good season for Ryan, so he’s looking to rebound next year as the defending world champion,” added Brathwaite’s local coach Alwyn Babb. “It isn’t anything that other world champions wouldn’t do.”
It follows a similar decision by multi-Central American and Caribbean Games (CAC) gold medal swimmer Bradley Ally, who elected against going after just relocating his training base to France.
“He [Ally] only moved to France two weeks ago and felt he needed time to get into this new training regime before racing at an important meet,” said Barbados Swimming Association president Sonia O’Neal. “He would have had to miss the CAC Games if he was going to compete at Commonwealth.”
Their combined absence further compounds Barbados’ suspect medal opportunities, as it comes on the heels of the retirement of swimmer Nicky Neckles, a former Olympian and the country’s most decorated CAC athlete.
Just two months ago, the three elite athletes accounted for four of Barbados’ ten medals at the CAC Games, with Ally and Brathwaite splitting all three of the country’s gold medals.
Now, Barbados have to do without three of their most accomplished international performers at a meet where the country only managed a solitary bronze medal four years ago in Melbourne, Australia.
At the very least, their absence helps the Barbados Olympic Association in its quest to reduce the Commonwealth squad due to a lack of finances along with the sub-par CAC performances.
But it’s almost certain BOA president Steve Stoute did not have Brathwaite and Ally in mind for those cuts.
“It’s almost impossible to fathom a situation where those three wouldn’t have medalled at these games,” said Glyne Clarke, assistant chef de mission.
“Now, our medal hopefuls would be Barry Forde and Anderson Emmanuel. But with all of these athletes pulling out of the games considering the problems in Delhi, you never know.”
