Bermuda’s track and field athletes miss out for first time in 49 years
HAMILTON, Bermuda (CMC) — Bermuda is to send no track and field athletes to the Summer Olympics for the first time in almost half a century, officials here said.
The Bermuda Olympic Association (BOA) on Friday confirmed the team for this month’s Tokyo Games with only two athletes — triathlete Flora Duffy and rower Dara Alizadeh — named as the island’s sole representatives.
After the BOA rejected official invitations in the form of universality places for swimmers Jesse Washington and Madelyn Moore, hopes remained that triple jumper Jah-Nhai Perinchief, 23, and long jumper Tyrone Smith would bolster the numbers.
Moore won four gold medals at last week’s Central American and Caribbean Amateur Swimming Confederation Championships in Puerto Rico while equestrienne Annabelle Collins opted to withdraw because her horse suffered an injury post-qualification.
However, neither Perinchief nor Smith managed to hit the automatic qualifying standard, or get themselves within the top 32 of the rankings by the Olympic deadline on Sunday, meaning that for the first time since the 1972 Games in Munich, Bermuda will not include a track and field athlete.
“It’s definitely disappointing not to have a track and field team representing Bermuda at the Olympic Games this summer,” Donna Raynor, president of the Bermuda National Athletics Association, told the Royal Gazette newspaper.
“It feels like we have always had a track and field team representing the nation, but unfortunately we will have no one in Tokyo.
“The athletes we had trying to qualify gave it 100 per cent, but, unfortunately, they could not hit the automatic standard or be within the places needed in the standings.
“From my point of view, it is hard to take that World Athletics don’t rank athletes on individual performances but rather on a points system. In the case of Jah-Nhai, he has outjumped some of the athletes who will be going but they have more points overall.”
She continued: “The way it is set up doesn’t work because some athletes, particularly those at university, haven’t had the opportunities to compete. There was no indoor season and then the outdoor season was cut short.
“With what is going on in the world with COVID-19, not all athletes could travel to compete in the bigger meets and so they didn’t get as many points competing in smaller meets.
“However, we knew the qualifying criteria ahead of time and although I’m extremely disappointed and don’t agree with it, we have to accept it this time round and move on.
“It’s just tough because we have two athletes who are of Olympic calibre in terms of individual performance, but they couldn’t achieve what was required and as a result we have no representation at the Games.”
Smith competed at the three previous Olympics and at 36 was hoping to have one final crack at a medal, but his dream was not fulfilled.
Duffy, 33, is hoping to bring home Bermuda’s second Olympic medal after heavyweight boxer Clarence Hill won bronze in the 1976 Montreal Games.
