Clydeen Mc­Don­ald

Three-time Olympic gold medal­list Usian Bolt was the head­line act at the 34th Hamp­ton In­ter­na­tion­al Games last year. How­ev­er, with fund­ing from the gov­ern­ment and cor­po­rate T&T not forth­com­ing as in the past, Rawle Rapheal, pres­i­dent of the Hamp­ton Ath­let­ic Club, has brand­ed the 35th edi­tion of the Games sched­uled to be­gin to­mor­row at Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, mu­cu­rapo, as a fi­nan­cial night­mare.

Rapheal made the com­ments while speak­ing at a me­dia brief­ing for the event at City Hall on Knox Street, Port of Sport, yes­ter­day. "Since the in­cep­tion of the Games we have been able to at­tract the world's best ath­letes to T&T. Last year we had Usian Bolt run­ning in the 100 me­tres, just a week af­ter break­ing the world record. This year, how­ev­er, be­cause of the lack of funds we have not been able to at­tract any su­per ath­letes like Bolt to the meet," said Rapheal.

With the usu­al bud­get for the Games be­ing in the re­gion of $5m, Rapheal re­vealed that the or­gan­i­sa­tion had re­ceived nowhere near this sum. "We have re­ceived very lit­tle this year com­pared to last year. To host the type of Games with ath­letes like Tyson Gay for ex­am­ple it would cost $5m be­cause these ath­letes com­mand an ap­pear­ance fee of US $60,000 each. Thats why this year we can't at­tract any­one," said Rapheal.

De­spite the lack of ma­jor for­eign ath­letes, Rapheal was still op­ti­mistic that this week­ends Games will be a suc­cess. Point­ing to an ap­pear­ance from na­tion­al men's 400m cham­pi­on Ren­ny Quow and Ja­maican run­ners Oral Thomp­son and 800m cham­pi­on Ald­wyn Sap­ple­ton, Rapheal urged lo­cal ath­let­ics fans to come out and sup­port the event. "I feel sure that the ath­letes that we have at­tract­ed will put on a great show be­cause many of them will want to make the qual­i­fy­ing stan­dards for the World Cham­pi­onships in Au­gust."

Rapheal al­so re­vealed that sev­er­al lo­cal ath­letes have waived their ap­pear­ance fee to par­tic­i­pate in the this week­end's meet. "So of our lo­cal run­ners like Ren­ny Quow, Fana Ash­by and Ayan­na Hutchin­son all waiv­ing their ap­pear­ance fees to take part in this meet. They are prepar­ing for the World Cham­pi­onships al­so so the com­pe­ti­tion would be good for them. I feel this will al­so at­tract a big crowd be­cause the pub­lic would have an­oth­er chance to see them race," said Raphael.

Al­so ex­pect­ed to take to the track this week­end are na­tion­al 800m and 1500m cham­pi­on Garvyn Nero, dis­cus throw­er Quin­cy Wil­son and na­tion­al men's 400m hur­dles cham­pi­on Je­hue Gor­don. They are all prepar­ing for the Pan Amer­i­can Ju­nior Track and Field Cham­pi­onships sched­uled to take place at Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um from Ju­ly 31 to Au­gust 1.