BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – ONE key to the success of any sporting association is allocating the proper funds to hold local competitions and send athletes overseas, but the body representing themselves as the St. Christopher and Nevis Taekwondo Federation (SCNTF) has outlined their continual struggle with this key component.
“The business community has actually been very helpful to us with the local tournaments. That is who we have had to rely on, but to be honest we’re not getting our funding that we’re supposed to get from the [National Olympic Committee],” SCNTF Public Relations Officer Gregg Herbert told SKNVibes in a recent interview.
While the SCNTF, which is led by Masters Lincoln and Lyndon David, claims to be recognized regionally by the Caribbean Taekwondo Federation and internationally by the World Taekwondo Federation, a local impasse in the sport within the past five years has caused the NOC to bar them from funding and technical support.
“I can only speak about the last three to four years, but this has been something that is ongoing. I don’t know exactly what’s happening. We’ve had elections for an executive body since January 12. It is now March and there hasn’t been any reply. We sent in our results.
“It’s really been tough for us because we’ve asked for explanations before, but we’ve been given nothing,” Herbert said.
However, President of the NOC Alphonso Bridgewater said his body is concerned that the proper avenues for executive elections have not been followed since an interim committee led by Andy Otto was appointed a number of years ago.
“Andy Otto is the legitimate person put in place, but the time has passed that they should have had elections. However, that’s not a reason to just go and give it to somebody else.
“What we are saying to David and his people is that, yes, that is the case, but you must now go out and have a legitimate election. Until they do this, we cannot send anybody to anything. We are not providing them with any moral or other support until they get their house in order,” Bridgewater stated.
A similar approach was taken in the past when issues arose with the table tennis, lawn tennis and volleyball associations, and Bridgewater said that is an effective way for the NOC to manage these types of disputes.
He noted that the NOC was willing to work with the SCNTF and send an observer to their elections, but all parties, including interim President Andy Otto, must be invited to the elections before they can be considered legitimate.
“Invite them, show us the signs that you invite them to the meeting and if they don’t come your constitution deals with that. Your constitution says that if you do it two or three times, whoever comes is the quorum. Do it that way because in the final analysis, somebody is going to challenge it how they are doing it now and it needs to be legitimate.
“Once they go that way, the NOC will stand behind whoever they elect, which will clearly be the Davids because Otto and his people have passed that stage. Nothing is happening with them,” the NOC President said.
While the SCNTF is not officially recognized as a national association at the moment, Herbert said that they hope the issue can be resolved this year because they plan to send more athletes to regional competitions and potentially take a big step toward the development of taekwondo within the Federation’s borders.
“We need their assistance because there is something planned for the end of this year that would be very big for us.
“We’re planning to hold the first ever [Organization of Eastern Caribbean States] Taekwondo Tournament. This is something that has been attempted before in the bigger islands, but never came off. This is something we really want to do this year because seven of the nine countries in the OECS are WTF-certified,” he noted.
He added that within the next five years the SCNTF hopes to make great strides in establishing more local tournaments and a schools programme that would eventually lead to a national high school championship.
Positive local developments such as these were noted by Bridgewater as key to the development of the nation’s athletes, and he stated his hope that elections could be held soon so the NOC can assist where necessary.
“The NOC has no issue with saying that Otto and them are not doing anything because we’ve told them so. We’ve told David so, but it doesn’t mean that they just get it. The most we can do is say that until they resolve their issues democratically, we cannot provide any support,” he stated.
