An Interim Management Committee (IMC) will now be pedaling and steering the affairs of the sport of cycling in Guyana.
During an Extraordinary General Meeting at Olympic House on Wednesday, nine of the 11 clubs voted on the motion that the current executive of the Guyana Cycling Federation (GCF) be dissolved and an IMC installed to effectively conduct the affairs of the discipline until the next Annual General Meeting in 2019.
According to a source, the IMC will be installed during the course of the next two weeks.
Following a whirlwind of reports of a lack of transparency and the continued absence from the country of the then president, US based Horace Burrowes, the cyclists and the clubs had had enough of seeing the sport spiral downward and called for a change.
Efforts to contact Burrowes by this publication over the past 11 months have proved futile.
The Meeting was called to order, and all in attendance were checked and verified as Financial Members before the Motion was proposed by Andrew Arjoon of Evolution Cycling Club, and seconded by Malcolm Sonaram of Carlton Wheelers Cycling Club.
According to the constitution, 5/6 of the votes must be met before the motion is granted. There was a unanimous vote.
The clubs present at the Meeting were Team Alanis, Carlton Wheelers, Continental, Team Evolution, Flying Ace, Flying Stars, Linden Bauxite Flyers, Trojan Cycling and Roraima. Missing were representatives from Team Cocos and We Stand United.
The next step was to introduce an IMC, and Sonaram suggested that a representative from each club be placed on this Committee, instead of a chosen few, which will put transparency in place, and all will have access to information and decision making.
The move which was first reported by the Guyana Cycling News, has been labelled “as a step in the right direction” and has been lauded by cycling enthusiasts and stakeholders.
During Burrowes’ tenure at the helm, he along with his executive, were accused of the following:
The failure to hold Meetings and or attend Meetings which showed disrespect of their commitment to cyclists
The failure of the President and most of the Executive to attend the 2016 National Championship Races.
The failure of the federation to publish the results of the WADA Drug tests of November 2015.
The President is a non-resident, and access to him, is at best, difficult, if not downright impossible.
What broke the camel’s back, was Burrowes, without informing the Racing Committee of the GCF, selecting himself and a Veteran/Masters category three cyclist to represent Guyana at the 2016 Pan American Elite Track Cycling Championships in Mexico.
The president knew, (a) that neither him or the other selectee were of the required standard for that level of competition, and (b) neither of them were ranked in the top 10 of the GCF category one elite riders.
