The Amateur Athletic Association of Guyana (AAA) will make every effort to get Guyana's Commonwealth Games women's 400-metre gold medalist, Aliann Pompey, to the Central American and Caribbean Track and Field Meet, slated for Grenada from July 4 to 6.
Speaking to Stabroek Sport yesterday, AAA president Claude Blackmore said his association would leave no stone unturned in getting Pompey from Europe, where she is currently campaigning, to Grenada for the meet.
Blackmore also cleared the air on an article which appeared in Saturday's edition of the Stabroek News, which stated that Pompey could miss out on representing at the CAC Meet, unless sponsorship is secured for her to travel from Europe to Grenada.
According to Blackmore, the AAA had budgeted to fly Pompey from her home base in the United States to Grenada, and not from Europe to Grenada since the association did not have the money.
Pompey had told Stabroek Sport that she was informed that she might not be on the national team for the CAC meet since the AAA was strapped for cash. She had said also that she had felt very disappointed at that.
Pompey pointed out that she decided to campaign in Europe in order to get in some much needed competition leading up to the CAC and Pan American Games.
Blackmore said having won a gold medal at last year's Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England, Pompey has become the AAA's priority in terms of representing Guyana at any international meet. "If there is only space for one Guyanese athlete at a games, Pompey would be our automatic choice," Blackmore declared.
Pompey who returned 51.96 seconds in winning the Commonwealth gold medal, clocked 51.48 seconds when she won the women's 400-metre on Sunday at the Kusocinski Memorial Meet in Warsaw, Poland. Bulgaria's Svetlana Usovich finished second in 51.62 seconds, while Anna Pacholak (51.88) placed third.
Blackmore said another US based Guyanese - Jessica DeFreitas - has been added to the CAC squad which includes Pompey, Marian Burnette, Alec Henry, Michelle Vaughn, Nyota Peters, Andre Blackman, Tai Payne and Clyde Gibson. Burnette and Henry are also based in the US, but Burnette is currently campaigning in Europe also.
DeFreitas who is the daughter of former national football goal keeper Vibert DeFreitas who hails from Bartica, attends the University of Georgia. She will contest the women's 100 metres and long jump.
Burnette will contest the 800-metre, while Vaughn will do battle in the women's long, high and triple jumps.
Peters will participate in the heptathlon, while Henry and Blackman are down for the men's 100 and 200-metre events. Payne will contest the men's 800-metre and Gibson the men's long and triple jumps.
Henry's best time for the 100-metre this year is 10.5 seconds.
This year's CAC meet is expected to attract some of the planet's top athletes.
According to the IAAF website, so far six countries have submitted names with their entries. The Bahamas will be fielding 32 athletes, including former NCAA champion Avard Moncur, the gold medal revelation of the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton, along with the Bahamas 4x100m women's relay team, three of whose members will also be at the CAC meet. The Bahamian women, who were World champions in 1999, went on to repeat their gold medal exploits at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
Cayman Islands' Kareem Streete-Thompson, who once led the world in the men's long jump, is on the list for the sprints.
Streete-Thompson was born in the USA, but lived his first 18 years in the Cayman Islands. Originally he represented the Cayman Islands, then USA, and then from 1999 the Cayman Islands again. Veteran 800m runner Dale Jones leads Antigua-Barbuda. Belize will be represented by 400m hurdler Michael Aguilar at the meet.
Jamaica has indicated that a strong contingent will be sent but the names will be submitted following their national championships next
weekend. Haiti and the Netherlands Antilles have also submitted their entries.
More than 600 athletes and officials, including a contingent from Cuba, have registered for the championships.