Trackspeed1 athletes, coach John Powell, and therapists Stuart Phazey and Lucy Eggleton, have been grounded after their pre-season training camp in Florida failed to take off following the Icelandic volcano eruption last week.
The group, who would have included British Senior Internationals Dwayne Grant, James Ellington and Set Osho, not to mention youth starlet David Bolarinwa, and others, were due to leave on Sunday. The whole group has been rescheduled now across the next few days, but coach John Powell, along with one squad member, have been put on a flight on Wednesday, and are now counting on some rapid progress.
"We are really tight for time now," said John, "and we are counting on the fact that the volcano has calmed down a bit today and might actually see UK airspace open again in time for us to fly. We now have Dwayne booked for Thursday, James Friday, and the rest on Sunday. But of course all that assumes there are planes in the right place to fly on!
"It's a logistical nightmare, because if I don't fly first, all the paperwork and bookings have to go with the first athlete to travel, and if that's Dwayne, he isn't one of those in our party who has a hire car reserved, so the likelihood is that at least he would have to be rebooked again."
Meanwhile, the squad have defaulted to training back at Crystal Palace and, although there were a few discontented athletes there on Sunday morning (instead of sitting on a Boeing 747 jet!), at least the weather was perfect for a track workout originally scheduled for Florida on Tuesday!
"We've got some athletes in seriously good shape this year," said John, "so wherever we train I reckon we are on for a great summer. It's just devastating to have a month's trip to the sun that we had all been yearning after such a terrible winter, snatched from under our noses at such short notice."
The latest update was from Sky News 4pm on Monday 19th April, saying that flights could resume in Scotland tomorrow morning, and in the south by evening, but this was dependant on the volcano (below) continuing to calm down.
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