In his personal capacity, Mr Delroy Murray, president of the Cayman Islands Athletics Association (CIAA), sent a press release to the media today (April 13) to “outline the factual circumstances” concerning the revocation of the coach accreditation for Lacee Barnes-Riley at the recent CARIFTA Games in The Bahamas. Murray said he wished to do so because “a lot of what is out in the community is based on a one-sided and false narrative.”
False narrative
To clearly understand what Murray framed as a “false narrative,” he set out the events chronologically.
Murray said:
On the17th January 2023 Ms. Lacee Barnes requested accreditation as Coaches for herself and finance and to be medal presenter at the Games as that was where she had won her first medal.On the 18th January 2023 the request was discussed in an Executive Meeting of the Association.[On] 13th February 2023, based on information from the LOC Ms. Barnes was advised that the requested accreditation was not possible based on our team size and that it was not possible for her to present medals. She thanked us for the information.On 5th March 2023 a request was made of us as to the possibility of her obtaining a media pass.On 10th March 2023 we filed our entries and submitted the same to NACAC. On the said 10th March 2023, in accepting our team submission NACAC was advised that an attempt had been made by persons to be accredited as part of the Cayman Islands Team who were not listed as part of the members of the Team submitted. We requested the name of the persons and were that they were Lacee Barnes and her husband who were desiring to be accredited stating that they were coaches with Team Cayman and that they also coached some of the athletes privately.On the 18th March 2023 NACAC informed us that a letter had been received from Ms. Barnes father (the immediate former President of the Association) had written to them enquiring if Ms.Barnes nd her husband could be provided with tickets as Ms. Barnes would be doing interviews with a media house there. They went to state that they advised that they needed the name of the local media house that she would be working for who would need to submit her name directly to the LOC and that in any event would need to be approved by the CIAA. In the words of the person supplying the information it looked like “subterfuge”.
Regarding the revocation of Lacee Barne’s accreditation, Murray said that when the U20 Girls Javelin commenced, “it was noted that Ms. Barnes was playing an active role in Coaching the Girls.”
Murray added: “Based on the fact that Ms. Barnes was not one of the accredited Coaches of the Team, I sent a message of complaint to the LOC asking for an investigation and the removal of Mr. Riley and Ms. Barnes accreditation.”
According to Murray, “The LOC responded agreeing that the accreditation was against the Rules and undertaking to have the accreditation of both persons removed.”
As to what happened next, Murray said:
On Sunday 9th April I again noticed that Ms. Barnes appeared to be Coaching the same two Athletes in the Shot-Put event. The President of the BAAA approached me and enquired as to how we wished to have situation handled. I advised him that we required the accreditations removed as they were not Coaches of the Association.The BAA President left after stating that although he did not know Mr. Riley, he knew Ms. Barnes and enquired as to where she was, and this was indicated to him.I observed that sometime after this two unarmed Police Inspectors were seen traveling in the direction of Ms. Barnes. However, I am unable to say if they actually accosted or even approached Ms. Barnes as my attention was drawn to the activity on the track.The next thing I observed was that Ms. Barnes was walking hand in hand with the President of the BAAA. There was and no Police Officers accompanying them and there certainly none was present with any firearm of any make or nature.A few Minutes later the President of the BAA approached m and informed me that he had removed the accreditation passes of both Mr. Riley and Ms. Barnes but wondered if there was any objection to them remaining within the confines of the Stadium but with the accreditation passes removed. I told him that neither I nor my Executive Officers had any objection to this position.At the invitation of the BAAA President, the I, the First Vice-President and General Secretary traveled to where Ms. Barnes was and informed her of the decision arrived at. In response Ms. Barnes referred to the Members of the Executive present and the Association in general with an offensive expletive, accusing us of doing nothing for the athletes and only being interested in sitting in VIP seats. At this point the Members of the Executive present removed themselves from the locale after the BAAA President had presented the me with the accreditation passes of both Mr. Riley and Ms. Barnes, which both showed that they had been accredited as Team Coaches of the Cayman Islands!Subsequent to that both NACAC and the LOC have confirmed the following to the CIAA: (a) Accreditation of Team Officials can only be made through the auspices of the Member Federation; and (b) Accreditation of Personal Coaches can only be made with the consent of the Member Federation.
Aftermath
After the above, Murrary explained:
The LOC has since confirmed that the Accreditation passes were obtained through the actions of a friend of Ms. Barnes father who:
(a) Unauthorizedly entered their names in the system under the auspices of the Federation; and thereafter
(b) Collected the passes and removed them from the confines of and over the objection of the LOC Office, which required proof that the Association’s approval had been received as this was required before handing the passes to the recipients or anyone.
Murray then summed up his views as follows:
Against this background I find the remarks of Ms. Barnes not only baseless and without foundation and in some cases to be outright lies.
The attempt made by us this past Tuesday to ameliorate the situation was not appreciated by Ms. Barnes who persisted in distorting the truth and the manner in which politicians have sided with her is not only disheartening but frankly misplaced and only serves to encourage the “We vs Them” narrative that bodes no good for the community, but we are approaching an election season, so I understand.
Murray concluded:
I hereby disassociate myself from the Press Release of today’s date, as it contains a number of inaccuracies. I have heard the calls for my resignation BUT I am made of stronger stuff. My mother raised no wimp. I will not yield to the clamor of a misinformed public. I will finish my term in office so long as that is the wish of the majority of the CIAA Membership.
I wish ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BUT THE BEST for our young athletes and for the Association and express the honor I feel for leading the body since November 2021 and hope to complete the mission the Executive endorsed in November 2021. Have we made mistakes? Yes we have BUT I dare anyone to honestly say that the sports of Track and Field has been in better hands in the past decade.
