Not a nice thing: Athletic association chief accepts blame for OGarro selection debacle

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Antigua and Barbuda Athletics Association President Everton Cornelius (left) poses with members of the Carifta team as they arrive at VC Bird International Airport on Tuesday

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By Neto Baptiste

Antigua and Barbuda Athletics Association (ABAA) president Everton Cornelius has admitted guilt over what he said was an oversight that resulted in the selection and subsequent deselection of the 400 meter track collegiate athlete, Kiron OGarro, before the recent Carifta Games held in the Bahamas.

It’s not a nice thing and I know it hurt some people, but the guy would be totally off the charts if we took him there. The 49 seconds he ran wouldn’t have been enough and then he went outside and he was even running slower and we have guys here who were running faster than what he was doing outside so , for me, it would have done an injustice to the athletes who are on the ground here to take him and not them, he said.

OGarro, who currently attends Monroe College in the United States, was originally named as part of a 15-member squad to represent Antigua and Barbuda at the Carifta Games, however, the athlete was deselected by the association with news of his withdrawal made public just two days before the teams left for the Bahamas.

Cornelius said he had to make an objective decision based on the athletes’ chances of being competitive at the games.

I don’t think everything was put on the table and considered in regards to the young man and his selection, so they had to go back to the board, and when you look at it objectively you realize that you would have done an injustice to the other athletes. You have to look at it from a competitive point of view. It’s not just about someone showing up for a game, it’s about competition, it’s about you can go and you can participate. It’s not that you show up and run the heat and that’s it, so you walk into the stadium and sit out for the next five days, the athletics boss said.

When asked if he agreed with coach Evans Jones’ sentiments that the selection process should be overhauled, Cornelius suggested he didn’t have time for nonsensical comments.

The system is flawed when some people don’t sit with you and the system is good when they make decisions. It’s stupidity, and I don’t have time to argue about stupidity. The system is not defective. We set the standards and the final decision of what the team is going to look like is determined by the athletic association executive, no one else. Other than who qualifies, anyone else added to this team, the athletic association executive will determine who it will be, and if we feel we need help from anyone else, we will determine if we want to bring someone to have a discussion with them. But it’s not a situation where people are going to dictate to the executive what they think a team should look like, he said.

Antigua and Barbuda won a gold and a bronze in the final matches with Gerlin Barnes covering a distance of 5.60 meters to overtake opponents in the girls under 17 long jump and Maliek Francis winning silver in the boys under 17 javelin competition with a throw covering a distance of 50.45 metres.

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