The UCI’s announcement on Monday that the 2017 Paralympic Track World Championships will be held in Los Angeles in the first week of March has been met with anger and derision after athletes were given just seven weeks to prepare.
Britain’s Jody Cundy, a seven-time Paralympic gold medallist and 15-time world champion, tweeted that the decision was "a joke” and later appeared on a daytime BBC television show to bemoan the UCI’s move, which he feels could have been motivated by “some hidden agenda”.
The first Para-cycling Track World Championships took place in 2007 but they have not been held on a regular basis, despite having been held in each of the past three years. In Monday’s UCI statement, president Brian Cookson hailed the first ever staging of the Worlds in a post-Paralympics ‘season’ – though they were held in late 2009 – as “notable progress”, but Cundy disagreed.
ADVERTISEMENT
I'm all up for racing and new events, but a full blown world champs with 7weeks notice. Seriously what a joke @UCI_cycling @UCI_paracycling
— Jody Cundy OBE (@jodycundy) January 9, 2017
“For it to be such last minute – it’s literally seven weeks – for athletes preparing, that’s not really enough time,” he said on the BBC. “For organisations and teams to sort out logistics, visas, transport, hotels, flights, you name it – it’s just a bit crazy.”
Cundy revealed that Dame Sarah Storey, an seven-time Paralympic cycling gold medallist who is part of the UCI’s para-cycling commission, “is just as angry as I am”, but said they had no idea what motive might have driven the decision.
— Jody Cundy OBE (@jodycundy) January 9, 2017
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/2jzop1G
No comments:
Post a Comment