BIRMINGHAM, England — After switching her allegiance to Jamaica and representing the island at the recently concluded World Athletics Championships, middle-distance athlete Adelle Tracey is “gutted” and still trying to come to grips with the circumstances behind her non-registration for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.

American-born Tracey represented Great Britain at the senior level, including at the 2017 World Athletics Championships, before announcing last month that she had switched her allegiance to Jamaica, where she spent some of her childhood in Manchester.

“I am really gutted about it, it’s a real shame, but having said that, I feel really grateful that I have been able to compete at the Worlds for Jamaica and had that experience this year, and that’s something that I’m going to really hold on to going forward and I am looking forward to competing at future championships,” said Tracey.

The 27-year-old represented Jamaica at the World Championships in June, advancing to the semi-finals in both the 800m and 1500m, and was expecting to feature for the island in Birmingham in front of family members and friends.

However, despite the efforts of Jamaican authorities, she was not cleared to compete at the Games, leaving her to ponder what could have been a special experience in her backyard.

“I know that’s really dissatisfying for a lot of people. It’s for me as well. It’s really frustrating to not actually know why this has happened. For a long time I was on the Commonwealth Games England long list because going into the selection for team England I was ranked number one for the 1,500m in the UK. So I did actually turn down my spot on the England team because I knew I was going through the [allegiance switching] process,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

“On the 27th of June, my allegiance change was processed, my flag was changed on the world-ranking system and I was given the green light for the World Championships and the JAAA selected me for the Commonwealth Games and for the World Championships. I don’t know what happened, I think it’s an administrative error, probably from the Commonwealth Games Federation, because the JAAA did everything in their power to select me and believed that I would be part of the team.”

“Even up until Wednesday I was still getting e-mails from Commonwealth Games asking me to download the app for the [athlete’s] village. I thought I would be going to the village on Monday, so it’s a bit of a shock to be honest, because having competed for Jamaica already this year at the World Championships, it’s confusing as to why things couldn’t be put in place for a championship that’s happening later than those. We’ve not really had an explanation but I know that Jamaica has done everything that they can to try and get me there,” said Tracey.

Tracey, who has now turned her attention to the Poland Diamond League on August 6, shared that it has been a disappointing development for members of her family as well.

“This one would have been a really special one for me, just knowing how many British Jamaicans are in Birmingham. I think the support would have been incredible and, obviously, I am still based in the UK and a lot of my family live here and they had planned on coming to the Games and they have tickets, so that’s really disappointing … there are not very many championships where your family can actually physically be there,” Tracey stated.