T&T Cy­cling Fed­er­a­tion (TTCF) pres­i­dent Rowe­na Williams stat­ed the Fed­er­a­tion has steps in place for na­tion­al cy­clists to qual­i­fy for the 2016 Olympic Games, dis­miss­ing claims by na­tion­al cy­clist Njisane Phillip.

It was re­port­ed in a dai­ly news­pa­pers (not the Guardian) on Sun­day that Phillip was un­hap­py with the TTCF in help­ing T&T cy­clists earn UCI (In­ter­na­tion­al Cy­cling Union) points to qual­i­fy for the UCI World Cup Se­ries and the Olympic Games in 2016.

Phillip was quot­ed on Face­book as say­ing: "TTCF didn't put any­thing in place for rid­ers to qual­i­fy for world cups this year, we don't even get UCI points for our na­tion­al cham­pi­onships? Why? The rest of the world does."

In a phone in­ter­view yes­ter­day with Williams, the TTCF pres­i­dent said plans are in place for cy­clists to earn UCI points at T&T's na­tion­al cy­cling cham­pi­onships. "Cur­rent­ly the coun­try has plans in place for cy­clists in our na­tion­al cham­pi­onships to get UCI points from next year, he (Phillip) is prob­a­bly not aware of that."

Phillip added: "We bare­ly even made it to the World Cup, if was not for my last minute trip to Czech Re­pub­lic which yall (TTCF) didn't pay for. I mean tell me our plan for this next Olympics team? Do you all even have one, or the ath­letes have to fig­ure it out again like 2010-2012? You all just wor­ried about elec­tion com­ing up."

Williams re­spond­ed by say­ing: "The Fed­er­a­tion has been en­sur­ing they (cy­clists) get fund­ing, we have been fund­ing cy­clists for events, I am not sure what his beef is." Williams said that af­ter fund­ing is giv­en to the rid­ers it is then up to the cy­clists to earn enough UCI points to qual­i­fy for the Olympic Games.

T&T was rep­re­sent­ed by Jude Co­dring­ton, Quin­cy Alexan­der and Kwe­si Browne at the first leg of the World Cup ear­li­er this month in Guadala­jara, Mex­i­co.

Phillip is not cur­rent­ly with the na­tion­al cy­cling team at the Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean Games (CAC) in Mex­i­co, but is ex­pect­ed to rep­re­sent T&T at the sec­ond leg of the UCI Cy­cling World Cup in Lon­don, Eng­land, from De­cem­ber 5-7.