BOA chief defends decision to send just 40 athletes to Youth Olympics

By Gerard Meagher, Sportsbeat

CHIEF executive Andy Hunt has defended the British Olympic Association's decision to fill less than half the spots available for home athletes at this month's inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.

BRAINCHILD: The inaugural Youth Olympic Games has been lobbied for by International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge

Great Britain will send a team of just 40 to Singapore - significantly short of the 100 places available with some sports, most notably swimming, sending just token participants.

It's a decision that will have raised a few eyebrows with the London 2012 organisers placing great emphasis on legacy and youth when presenting their bid in 2005 - in Singapore.

Only two British swimmers will make the trip to the Far East. However, Achieng Ajulu-Bushell, who won the 50m and 100m breaststroke titles at the British Gas Swimming Championships aged 16, is not one of them.

Diving world champion Tom Daley will compete in Singapore to continue to acclimatise to Olympic competition ahead of London 2012 but athletes Jodie Williams and Jack Meredith will not.

But Hunt believes there are justifiable reasons for sending a 40-strong squad and insists it is not down to a lack of interest from the various national governing bodies.

"We're fielding a team of 40 and we've got some really talented young athletes in there from a diverse range of sports," said Hunt.

"I'm excited about having 40 athletes. The reality is that you actually had to qualify on a continental basis for many of those slots that would have been available to us.

"In some of the sports we don't actually compete in those age categories so that is part of the reason we didn't qualify anyone for those events.

"And then our European rivals are ultra-competitive in team sports in particular so the reason that we've only got 40 athletes is not about the support from our governing bodies, it's actually about the fact that we needed to qualify on merit.

"The position that we take up in general is that the 40 athletes have qualified almost entirely on merit and that was very important to us.

"And there are very few examples where sports haven't fielded anyone for any events.

"There are quite a few events that we don't have that age group or an event that doesn't apply to us.

"For example, there's a canoeing event that combines sprint and slalom or a cycling event that's a mixture of the road and the track."

The Youth Olympic Games is the brainchild of current IOC president Jacques Rogge, but with no precedent on which to gauge the competition, a number of athletes, and national bodies, have opted to stick with more tried and tested events.

Williams' and Meredith's absence from Singapore can be explained by their focus on the World Junior Championships last month while promising weightlifter Zoe Smith has targeted the Commonwealth Games in Delhi this October instead.

More than 3,500 athletes from 170 countries are expected to compete in Singapore from August 14-26.