‘Mercy’ to challenge national club championships results

Track and Field coach and head man for local club IT-DAT Michael “Lord Have Mercy” Ollivierre is not accepting the results of last Saturday’s Mustique National Club championships, held at the Arnos Vale Playing Field.{{more}}

In fact, he has gone as far as to call them “bogus”.

According to the count released by Team Athletics SVG last Sunday, X-Cel had tallied 924 points, ahead of 909.5 scored by IT-DAT. X-Ceed Sports Club docked in third with 582 points, with Great Head compiling 198.5 and High Class 48 points, taking the fifth spot.

The other clubs which participated were Lightning, Chatoyers and the St Vincent Grammar School. There was also overseas participation from Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago.

But Ollivierre is questioning the fact that some athletes, including Nelio Thomas and Dexroy Wilson, who represented X-Ceed in the preliminaries, turned out for X-Cel on the day of the finals.

Investigations by SEARCHLIGHT proved that was indeed the case.

SEARCHLIGHT also confirmed that there were some athletes who sported the navy blue vests of X-Ceed, but were on the roster of X-Cel.

Ollivierre further told SEARCHLIGHT last Wednesday that he found it suspicious that he was the only one who was questioning what he thought were blatant discrepancies with the results.

But Ollivierre believes that despite the allegations of collusion by the head coaches of X-Cel and X-Ceed, the parent body for track and field here, Team Athletics SVG, should take part of the blame for what he deemed a “farce”.

“They have to gang up to beat my club, but more than that, what is the governing body going to do about this?” Ollivierre questioned.

Ollivierre noted that he was not too upset about the results, rather the principle of athletes switching clubs.

“I am not going to accept the results ….. They are bogus and if the authorities do not do anything about them, my club will not be taking part in any such championships again”, Ollivierre advised with some disgust.

Last Saturday’s happenings and the spin-offs, are another chapter in the serial, featuring the fall-out among local track and field coaches.

X-Cel has as its head coach Rawlson Morgan, while X-Ceed, which has been repeat winners of the annual club championships, has Godfrey Harry at the helm of its technical staff.

Amidst the confusion, the male Under-16 division was won by Nelio Thomas of X-Cel with 30 points, while Shaffica Maloney of IT- DAT was the female champion in the age category, with 32 points.

X-Cel’s Lopez Mc Fee won the male Under-18 division with 23 points and Kerina Hooper of X- Ceed was the female champion with 35 points.

Keron Arthur gave X- Cel another individual award — the male Under- 20 title, with his 41 points. His tally was the highest overall for males. Shantal Rouse, 45 points, of IT- DAT, claimed the female Under-20 champion title.

Securing the male 20 and over individual title was Joshua Hamilton of IT-DAT. His 23 points put him ahead of the pack, while X-Cel’s Alicia Cox put together 47 points, to not only take the female 20 and over title, but to record the most points among all the female categories.

Godfrey Harry won the veterans’ male category with his 20 points and Andrea David-Latchman, who represented X-Cel, was the female veterans’ winner, registering 28 points.

Apart from the titles that were at stake, athletes positioned themselves for selection for upcoming overseas meets.(RT)