LOCAL CYCLING’s best athlete may well be at the centre of its latest controversy.
Darren Matthews’ once promising career could now be at the crossroads, as his camp and the Barbados Cycling Union (BCU) are at loggerheads over the elite rider’s shocking non-selection for the recently concluded Caribbean Road Race Championships.
The fallout seems to have left the talented 23-year-old so heartbroken and disillusioned to the point where his availability for the upcoming Central American and Caribbean Games in Veracruz, Mexico, is also now in question.
“I have tried speaking to Darren but I have never seen him so down before because right now he doesn’t want to discuss cycling with anybody,” said his father and local manager David Matthews.
“He just returned home on Sunday and I’m just trying to give him some breathing space, but his local coach Colin Forde tried speaking to him too. However he’s just not having it because he feels he was robbed of a medal by his own Barbados Cycling Union.
“Emile Abraham from Trinidad finished second in that race and Darren beat him by more than five minutes in the Tobago Classic just a week earlier, so you can understand how Darren feels.”
The rather surprising turn of events appears to stem from Matthews’ failure to contest both the National Road Race and the Commonwealth Games road race in Glasgow, Scotland, earlier this year.
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