BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – SKN ATHLETES are disappointed with a recent announcement by the St. Kitts and Nevis Amateur Athletics Association (SKNAAA) that they would have to pay 20 % of their gross earnings received at World Championships.
According to the Athletes Rep and former World Champion, Kim Collins, the athletes are not happy with this.
Yesterday, (Feb. 16) news broke that athletes selected to represent the Federation at the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Istanbul, Turkey will have to pay the St. Kitts and Nevis Amateur Athletics Association (SKNAAA) a fee equal to 20 percent of the gross amounts earned at the meet.
The article stated that according to Evris Huggins, SKNAAA’s Public Relations Officer, the decision was made in an effort to recoup expenses incurred and to maintain the current development programmes of the nation’s junior athletes.
However, Collins said that this new decision will not work and some athletes are no longer interested in the World Championships because of this decision.
“It is supposed to be designed to help the sport but I don’t think it’s working,” he said. “Twenty per cent is a lot of money, and we’re looking at the managers that take 15 per cent,; you go to games or championships and you get prize money, and now 35% of that will be gone,” he said.
Collins referred to the decision as unorthodox and also said that the percentage is too high.
“It is something not normal, and to start at 20% that is high, and persons are not happy about that, they are not happy that this has to happen in order for them to compete for their country.”
Collins said that some of the athletes leave their place of employment to train and compete overseas and are not compensated for their leave of absence and so depend on their earnings at the meet.
“What’s going to happen is that persons wouldn’t want to represent their country because of this. I already told them that I’m not going because of this and I think they are going to have a hard time finding persons to go. I am very disappointed with what has taken place,” he said.
Qualified athletes were sent this new development although the athletes to participate at the World Championships have not been selected as yet.
A section of the clause stated: “The Athlete shall pay the SKNAAA a fee equal to 20% of the gross amounts paid to or earned by the Athlete for participating in the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Istanbul, Turkey. This shall include prize money, appearance fees (including fees paid for promotional activities and ancillary to the competition), or other performance bonuses, guarantees, and the value of any prizes or bonuses paid in the form of merchandise of any kind.
However, if the athlete is sponsored by our principal sponsor, Adidas, then the “other performance bonuses, guarantees and the value of any prizes or bonuses paid in the form of merchandise of any kind” will not be included in the calculation of the gross amounts paid to or earned by the Athlete.”
“If you’re going to start so high it sends a message that, you’ve come to take and you’re being greedy. To do so at 20%, is extremely unfair. I don’t think that this should happen and at 20% per cent, it is wrong,” Collins said.
The SKNAAA PRO also said that at the Games at Daegu the expenses were very high and that they spent close to EC$100,000 and those athletes were given prize money.
“And the agents for those persons who have contracts were also paid. Therefore, the association has decided that in these times, they saw it fit to make certain adjustments to the contract so that the association can get something back to put into the different sectors of sports for the youth or junior programmes that we are conducting in the Federation,” Huggins stated in an interview.
Collins claimed that in Daegu the relay team that placed third received a total of US$20,000 for the entire team which consists of five athletes including himself.
“We ended up receiving US$3,000 because, the association took US$5,000 from what we won for that race and this was something we were not informed of before.
“It was a shock to us the athletes, knowing that they feel this money should be given to them and at the end of the day the association ended up with more than we who ran… the SKNAAA ended up with US$5,000 and we ended up with US$3,000; that was unfair.”
In speaking with Lester Hanley, Vice President of the SKNAAA, he said that Collins, as the Athletes Rep, is privy to everything and that the deduction was not a surprise to him as he is the one charged with making the information known to the rest of the athletes.
He said the deduction was due to a penalty by the IAAF for failure of one of the five athletes on the team to participate at the games.
“When you prepare for a relay team you take one or two persons as substitutes. In order for the substitutes to be given a medal along with the actual four athletes they would have to touch the track at one point in time; they would have to run in the preliminary rounds or finals. In the case of the world championships, only four athletes ran in the semi-finals and in the finals.
“So as far as the IAAF was concerned only four were eligible for medals; because one did not participate, a penalty was applied. The IAAF pays money for winnings. If they will penalize they will first deduct money which is what they did. The balance that was paid, from the US$20,000 was given to the athletes and the association received EC$875,” Hanley said.
However, Collins reiterated that the 20 per cent is too high.
“If they’re trying to get some sort of help back, in terms of offsetting the cost, starting at 20 per cent is not ideal. It’s a turnoff, right now it’s turning everyone off and nobody wants to go to the world championships.
Being an athlete as in any other profession, one is passionate about one’s hopes to be successful but it takes time and work and other enduring obstacles. Collins said that the athletes go through too much to now have to worry about more deductions from their money.
“We’re training hard, we have to put up with a lot of traveling, the airlines, immigration, customs, we have endured embarrassment, delays, and now you get ready for the big one where you expect you would be getting something and now this,” he said.
“With our athletes making us proud at last year’s World Championships with the male 4x100m relay team placing third, it would be unfortunate that our athletes would not be participating this year.”
“We just started doing good, it will kill everything, it’s gonna be difficult, it’s gonna be rough, it’s gonna be a struggle, because everyone is thinking they’re right, and they know what’s best but at the end of the day, if we can’t work together it’s not going to work and the athletes must be comfortable, because they have to perform and they have to win; nobody wants to hear about personal best, and breaking national record, they want to know if we won gold.
“I hope that in the future things will change but right now I don’t think that 20 per cent will move. I think it will stick. I don’t think that anyone will go to the championship either. I already told them I am not running on the relay team anymore,” Collins said.
The former World Champion said that his reason for not being on the relay team derives from other issues and he is planning on returning to St. Kitts during the time of the World Championship.
The IAAF World Championship is scheduled to be held from March 9-11 in Istanbul, Turkey.
