Controversy has erupted at the 52nd CARIFTA Games in Trinidad and Tobago after Guyana’s Mixed 4x400m relay team was disallowed from racing due to a dispute over the timing of their team submission.
Officials upheld the decision despite a protest from the Guyanese camp.
The Mixed 4x400m relay was scheduled for 19:10h local time.
While the “agreed protocol,” according to a senior Trinidadian organising official, dictated that team submissions should be made two hours before the race, Guyana’s management believed the standard deadline was one hour before.
The management contended they were not officially informed of the new protocols.
It is understood that the call room, located within the warm-up area, is accessible to all teams and has a live feed of events.
The Trinidadian official stated the submission deadline was 17:15h, but Guyana’s list was submitted at 17:20h.
Guyana promptly lodged a protest, which they paid for, but it was unsuccessful; the appeal jury upheld the initial decision just before the race commenced.
Despite the organisers making several public calls for team submissions, the Guyanese quartet of Tianna Springer, Malachi Austin, Narissa McPherson, and Afi Blair were left off the starting blocks when the race eventually got underway around 19:30h.
A disappointed representative from Team Guyana stated, “We were willing to run the race under protest, as the appeal jury could not make a final decision, even though we had ample time after submitting our protest.”
The official also confirmed their request to run under protest was denied.
This is a significant blow for Guyana, which set a Games record of 3:23.51 seconds in the same event at last year’s CARIFTA Games in Grenada and had a strong team eager to compete.
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