SEVERAL Barbadian athletes who left the island on LIAT last Sunday for the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, are yet to receive their luggage and equipment and the start of competition is looming.Triathlete Matthew Wright has received his bike, but not his clothing, while manager Peter Gibbs has also been affected. Some of the hockey players also haven’t received their luggage, but the cycling contingent has been hardest hit.Simon Clarke, Mario Forde, Darren Matthews, Denise Crebbin, Monica Weekes, Jason Perryman, Shane Weekes, and mechanic Charlie Pile are all without their luggage, and even more important, the riders have not received their bikes. Manager Colin Forde, who took another carrier, has all of his clothing, but he was concerned about the lack of response from St Vincent.No help“We have been trying hard out of San Juan to get this rectified, but with no assistance whatsoever. LIAT is just not responding. We are being told that the luggage is in St Vincent,” Forde told NATIONSPORT in a telephone interview yesterday morning.“And to make it worse, they have brought forward the cycling by one day.”This means that Crebbin and Monica Weekes, who are both scheduled to compete in the women’s time trial at 8 a.m. today have no bikes and have not been able to train on the track.Forde said the riders who came out of Europe had not been affected.“Barry Forde, Jason Forde and Christian Lyte have received their equipment so they are the only ones that are active right now. As I speak to you, they are on the way to the track for training.“All of the equipment was specially tagged and they were very much aware of this situation because the BOA [Barbados Olympic Association] was working very close with LIAT on this problem, which we knew we would encounter, but not as severe as this,” Forde said.LIAT’s Barbados station manager Oliver Haywood said he became aware of the situation on Monday when he was contacted by chef de mission Craig Archer, and was awaiting a status report from St Vincent.However, he indicated the delay was due to high winds.Strong winds“St Vincent, unfortunately, is one of the few airports in the Caribbean that the wind conditions affect your take-off and unfortunately, it seems from my reports in St Vincent on Sunday and Monday the winds were extremely high,” Haywood said.“We have a minimum [weight] for take-off and a maximum. When the crew got the weather conditions from control tower, unfortunately, the winds were so strong that once it is a particular level, they look at a chart and say we should be at x,y,z weight and unfortunately he had to reduce the weight of the plane for take off.”Haywood said cycling was being treated as a priority and some of the luggage left St Vincent for Antigua on Monday night, and more luggage was also on the direct flight from St Vincent to San Juan.
