– Fortune believes she deserves South American spot
By Treiston Joseph
A lot of controversy has arisen over the past few days, ranging from the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) questioning the competence of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) at the AAG’s award ceremony on February 15, to well known distance coach blasting the president of the AAG.
The warning came about due to Alika Morgan’s withdrawal from the South American Games in Chile, set for March, citing short notification of her selection and unpreparedness, when in fact the GOA was informed by Morgan that she is pulling out of the games.
According to Black, Morgan’s unpreparedness stemmed from the AAG, which was given notice by the GOA since last year to shortlist a team, informing Black about Morgan’s selection on February 8.
Further, Black in an interview with GTI Sport on Monday labeled the president a dictator, who has made decisions on teams by himself, while indicating that the council agreed that Natasha Alder would have replaced Morgan on the team.
However, Morgan has been replaced by track stalwart and the best female local sprinter for Guyana over the past decade Alisha Fortune, a situation which has brought into question yet again the AAG’s competence, given that Fortune is nearing 40 years old and would not benefit from the exposure, due to her age, as well as a plan to send young athletes to the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
While the criticism might be true with regard to Fortune’s age and her selection, the veteran sprinter believes that she is worthy of the spot, and noted that age is not an issue.
“This doen’t have anything to do with age, if the athlete is performing, these are senior games and when you would have looked at it, there is no one else.
“If you look on the international scene you would see there are athletes competing at older ages and doing good… Merlene Ottey competed at the Olympics at 40,” Fortune said.
