Brenessa Thompson (right) will be lone representative for Guyana at the 2015 Carifta Games in St Kitts & Nevis. Missing will be Cassie George who won 1500m gold and 800m silver as a 14-year-old Under-17 athlete in 2013 in Bahamas. George returned last year to put in a double gold medal performance in the same age group when she landed gold medals in the 1500m and 3000m events. Photo: Kaieteur Sport

President of the Athletic Association of Guyana (AAG), Aubrey Hutson confirmed unfortunately yesterday that 11 locally-based athletes bound for the meet will have to remain at home unless an enterprising corporate entity comes up with US$20,000 to charter an aircraft.

“We cannot go. We can’t get flights out of here; we can only get a chartered flight; unless we get US$20,000 from one of our good friends for a charter, the possibility of the team going is almost impossible. We really and truly tried our best,” Hutson said.

Asked why the AAG waited until the week of the Games to pursue flights, he indicated that their association had an arrangement where 15 seats would have been secured on Trinidad’s charter to the Games since January. Following the AAG CARIFTA trials three weeks ago, Hutson said that he confirmed the availability of the 15 seats with Trinidad and Tobago.

However, he was subsequently told that the 15 seats on the Trinidad charter were taken after the association got a commitment from Caribbean Airlines to get Guyana to Trinidad. Hutson stated that he then pursued a similar arrangement with Jamaica and he was told that Jamaica has the 15 seats available on its charter headed for the Games.

According to Hutson, he got Fly Jamaica involved to get the team to Jamaica, but was informed that Turks and Caicos snapped up the 15 seats on the Jamaican charter. He said that Fly Jamaica had also informed them that their flight today is cancelled. As a result of the travel imbroglio, he informed that US-based sprinter, Brenessa Thompson will be Guyana’s lone representative at the 2015 CARIFTA Games.

“Only Thompson will be going. The AAG took everything into consideration and that is the only possible outcome as it is now,” Hutson said. Kaieteur Sport confirmed yesterday that Thompson and her Coach, Shaun Dietz are scheduled to arrive in St. Kitts today.

When asked why Guyana did not plot an independent journey to St. Kitts and Nevis, as opposed to seemingly depending on Trinidad and then Jamaica to get them there, Hutson said: “LIAT had no seats available for the last 10 days. It’s (St. Kitts) a difficult destination”.

Guyana had been on the ascendency at CARIFTA Games, dating back to those prodigious efforts of triple gold medallist, middle distance athlete, Jevina Straker, her third gold coming as part of a 2013 team brought home six medals from the Games in the Bahamas.

Middle distance queen, Cassie George led Guyana to four medals last year, including two gold of her own. George is among the athletes grounded this year, obviously halting her attempt to create a record medal haul performance from any Guyanese athlete at the Games.

Guyana’s 2015 CARIFTA Games team also included Linton Mentis (U-20 male 100m, 200m), Michelle Powley, Avon Samuels, Compton Caesar (100m, 200m), Matthew Mckenzie (1500m, 3000m), Ornesto Thomas, Kenisha Phillips (200m), Claudrice Mckenzie (3000m), Chantoba Bright (Long and Triple Jump) and Natricia Hooper (Triple Jump). Julian Edmonds was named Head Coach and Yvonne October was Team Manager.