The top Dominican track and field athletes have taken public their pleas to the Ministry of Sports to end the improvisations that affect their training and competing programs. Brothers Luguelin and Juander Santos, Mariely Sanchez and her husband coach José Rubio told Listin Diario that the Ministry has not met agreements reached for wage improvements and timely payments of airfares for international competition. Luguelin Santos recently competed in the IAAF World Indoor Championships held in England where he would have come in second in the 400m but was disqualified for stepping on his lane line.
The group that now trains in Bahrein where Rubio took a coaching job says they will not represent the Dominican Reoublic in the Central American and Caribbean Games in Barranquilla, Colombia (19 July to 3 August 2018) if these agreements are not met. They are demanding improvement to the wages of coach Rubio, the contributions received from the Parni elite athlete program and improvements in the payments program by the Dominican Federation of Association of Athletics (FDAA).
Rubio told Diario Libre: “Until they get things clear with us, they will not be able to count on them or on me in any event.”
Luguelin Santos, who won silver in the 400m in the London 2012 Olympics, has been receiving RD$17,000 a month from the Parni program, he says. He wants this to be revised upwards to the level of Ministry of Sports monitors that make RD$40,000.
Rubio said that Sports Minister Danilo Díaz had increased his RD$25,000 wage to RD$60,000. But when the Santos brothers, Mariely Sanchez and himself moved from training in Puerto Rico to Bahrein, the RD$25,000 wage level was restored.
Rubio complains the improvisation directly affects the athletes’ plans. He said it had been agreed that the FDAA would pay the tickets for the team to move to Bahrein, but they have not yet done so. Rubio complained everything is left for the last minute.
Rubio told Diario Libre that if it were not for the private sports fund, Creso (Creando Sueños Olímpicos) the team would not exist.
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Diario Libre
6 March 2018
