'Honour your promise'
Aaron Armstrong under financial pressure, says dad
Kwame Laurence klaurence@trinidadexpress.com
Thursday, July 13th 2006
"Aaron is down, very down. I had to encourage him to keep fighting... to attend the CAC Games in Colombia."
Ainsley Armstrong, father of national 200 metres champion Aaron Armstrong, is "calling on the authorities to honour their verbal agreement" to provide his son with financial assistance.
"Since making the national team for the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki, Finland, he was promised money from the elite athlete assistance programme. He never got a cent, and continues to get promises that 'the money is coming'.
"Aaron could have gone to Europe to run on the circuit," the elder Armstrong continued, "but his schedule is for national duty... track is his job, but he isn't making any money.
"He has given up about US$40,000 since he started running for the country. I do want to say though that he's grateful for the assistance he got from the TTOC (Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee) for the Commonwealth Games, and he'll get help for CAC as well."
Ainsley, a top T&T sprinter in the 1970s, told the Daily Express Aaron is having difficulty sustaining himself.
"He has coaches to pay, medical expenses. And it's the same thing with Kevon Pierre. He has also been promised assistance, but has not received any money."
Pierre ran the lead-off leg for T&T in the men's 4x100m relay at the World Championships last year. He combined with Marc Burns, Jacey Harper and Darrel Brown for silver in 38.10 seconds, a new national record.
The younger Armstrong was born in the United States, but opted to represent the land of his father's birth. Kerron Clement, on the other hand, was born in T&T but chose to compete for the US. Clement is at the top of the 2006 performance list in the men's 400m hurdles at 47.39 seconds.
"If shown some encouragement," Ainsley declared, "there are athletes out in the US who would run for T&T. There'll be another Clement coming up, another Armstrong coming up."
