Speaking to Stabroek Sport by telephone yesterday, Pompey said she has not heard anything about the CAC meet from the Amateur Athletic Association of Guyana in a few weeks. “It’s a few weeks now since I heard from (Claude) Blackmoore (AAA president).

When contacted, Blackmoore said the locally based members of the squad will leave Guyana tomorrow for Grenada and will be joined by United-States based Guyanese Jessica DeFreitas.

When asked what is the position with Pompey, Blackmoore said he sent Pompey an e-mail asking if she was available, but he received no reply.

Asked if this meant that Pompey would not be a part of the squad at the meet, a hesitant Blackmoore said “Let’s leave that for after CAC.”

Pressed for a definitive response, Blackmoore said he does not think so.

The locals were originally scheduled to leave for Grenada today, but according to Blackmoore, there were problem with BWIA and LIAT so the traveling date had to be put back.

Pompey said she received an e-mail from Blackmoore two weeks ago but nothing more since.

“I was expecting it (not being present for the CAC meet), and I do feel disappointed but I’ve already dealt with that.” Pompey lamented, adding “I will go to Ireland for a meet on Saturday then return to New York.

Blackmoore said the AAA tried getting sponsorship to have Pompey travel from London to Grenada but things did not work out. “We tried to get funding for her and things had looked favourable, but nothing has materialised,” Blackmoore stated.

Yesterday, another section of the media reported that Blackmoore disclosed to them (media) that Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports Gail Teixeira had provided funding to cover an air ticket for Pompey from London to New York, but further assistance was still being sought to allow Pompey to be in Grenada.

The said article also quoted Blackmoore as saying persons have volunteered to provide additional funding and no efforts will be spared to have Pompey at the championships.

Pompey last competed in the Czech Republic on Sunday and placed second to Russia’s Olesya Zykina who returned a winning time of 51.61 seconds. Pompey’s time was 52.27 seconds. The third place finisher was another Russian, Natalya Antyukh (52.28).

Zykina is ranked number three in the IAAF’s world ranking for women 400m runners. The number one and two ranked athletes are Mexico’s Ana Gabriela Guevara and Jamaica’s Lorraine Graham-Fenton respectively.

Asked about that performance, Pompey said she went out too slow and never recovered. “The time was better that when I ran in Switzerland, but it still was a poor time,” Pompey stated.

The other members of Guyana’s CAC contingent are; Michelle Vaughn, Nyota Peters, Andre Blackman, Tai Payne, Ken Elexy (manager) and Foster Sampson (coach).

Another US based Guyanese athlete, Alec Henry, was also shortlisted for the CAC meet, but according to Blackmoore, Henry is recovering from an injury.