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Disciplinary Committee boycotts Bentley meeting
Cyclist, Lawyer left ‘high and dry’
By Edison Jefford
There was streaming light at the end of the dark tunnel that connected Jude Bentley to the continued rift with the Guyana Cycling Federation (GCF), but that light was a mere crack in the tunnel that fooled all into believing it was the end.
Jude Bentley
Kaieteur Sport understand from reliable sources that embattled local cyclist, Jude Bentley was thought to have reached the culmination of his struggle to get his licence to ride in Guyana at a GCF Disciplinary Committee meeting.
The meeting was scheduled for 5pm yesterday at the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) located in Thomas Lands where Bentley was to receive the positive verdict that he will be allowed to ride locally, but on probation.
However, when the former national cyclist and his lawyer Ronald Burch-Smith turned up for the meeting, they had no idea that they would be the only ones attending the forum at the YMCA since the Disciplinary Committee boycotted.
This is the latest in a host of confusion between Bentley and the GCF following his return to Guyana after the 2006 Commonwealth Games where he was issued a one-year ban for reported misbehaviour and initially fined $20,000.
The Disciplinary Committee met on May 23 and 30 in 2006 to exact penalties on Bentley and Warren McKay after reported indiscipline (on their way to, and in Australia) as part of the Guyana contingent to the Commonwealth Games.
McKay and Bentley were both guilty of similar infractions but McKay received a lighter sentence: McKay was suspended for six months and fined $10,000 while his counterpart was suspended for one year and fined $20,000.
In the minutes of the May 30, 2006 meeting, the Disciplinary Committee reported that the athletes were reprimanded according to the International Cycling Federation’s Discipline and Procedures–Forms of Infringement rules.
McKay paid his fine, served his sentence and is competitively riding while Bentley is still serving his sentence despite known attempts to pay his fine in an effort to compete in the land of his birth. Those have all failed incrementally.
This newspaper understand that Bentley had prior arrangements to pay his fine sometime in September 2007 and several times afterward but could not guarantee on those occasions that he will be given his license following payment.
There were attempts from Kaieteur Sport to reach GCF President Hector Edwards on the issue but those proved futile given that he is overseas. Edwards had previously declined an interview with this newspaper on the matter.
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