GCF on the precipice; poor administrative judgments will damage our cyclists

Aug 04, 2021 Sports

Letter to the Sports Editor…

Dear Sports Editor,

Kaieteur News – It is with total dismay our club as well as our fellow member clubs were informed in a Stabroek News article published on August 2, 2021 under the headline, “GCF President says local cyclists not prepared for C/bean championships.”
The general consensus in the club’s whatsapp group was that that the GCF President took a decision to rob all cyclists of the opportunity to represent this nation at the upcoming Caribbean and Pan American Championships set for the Dominican Republic from August 12-15, 2021.
This current scandal has brought to the open what has been suspected for some time now, that the current executive of the GCF is not pedaling in the same direction to the detriment of the sport and ultimately, our athletes.
The President must come clean and let the clubs and nation know why he alone took such a decision or who were the other members consulted in arriving at such a decision. Surely, the General Council of the Federation, the competent body to discuss and decide on such an important issue, was not involved.
The Third Vice President of the GCF in the article took the President to task and informed the reporter that he has been kept in the dark on matters concerning the Federation, which is very sad.
Covid-19 has rocked every nation in the world, so, to say that our most important asset in the sport is unprepared, is outrageous to say the least. Our athletes have been putting in the hours, following all the covid-19 guidelines as prescribed by the National Covid-19 Task Force and had their sights set on competing at the highest level in the Caribbean.
These cyclists, male and female have been training and competing in all races that have been organised so far this year, as recent as Sunday last in Berbice.
Our National Female Champion is no doubt devastated by the arbitrary decision of the GCF President. Is this the way administrators operate in modern day sports? The GCF Third VP articulated many salient points in the article that was published including the fact that the GCF is cash strapped which has been the case for many, many years.
Cyclists, through their respective clubs have always been asked to help fund their way to senior and junior championships as the GCF only organises one championship per year, and that’s the National Championships.
That apart, it’s the clubs who organise races which keeps the sport going, so there is very limited opportunity for the GCF to raise funds from events unless a comprehensive fund-raising plan is put in place and activated. This responsibility falls under the purview of the Third VP.
There are many other issues plaguing the sport and most of it is from an administrative perspective which has to be sorted out once and for all. If it is not, our athletes would continue to suffer because of the selfish attitudes of administrators.
We are calling on our fellow clubs to call for a meeting to deal with this and other matters urgently. We are also putting the Minister of Culture Youth and Sport, Chairman of the National Sports Commission and the Director of Sport on notice.
Administrators must be held accountable and this matter must not be allowed to fall by the wayside.
Respectfully,
We Stand United Cycle Club

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