A lack of financial support could force the Bermuda National Athletic Association to scale back next month’s inaugural Bermuda Invitational Permit Meet at the National Sports Centre.

BNAA is in partnership with the Bermuda Tourism Authority to put on the event, but funds are so tight that the association may have to cut back on the prize money.

Donna Raynor, the BNAA president, uttered the warning about the April 17 meet which is supposed to feature Olympians competing against top local athletes in marque events such as the 100 and 400 metres, 400 hurdles, 800, 1,500, men’s long jump and women’s high jump.

Finances will not only be a challenge for that event but others in this Olympic year said Raynor, who was returned as president at last week’s annual general meeting.

Raynor admits BNAA is “close to running on zero” after a big cut in funds from Government in last year’s Budget. Among other things the BNAA is responsible for sending a team to the Carifta Games later this month in Grenada, and to the NACAC Under-23s in Puerto Rico in July in the lead- up to the Olympic Games in Rio in August.

“It’s going to be a challenging year and has already been challenging from a financial standpoint,” Raynor said. “We’re pretty much close to running on zero, but we have things we have to do, one of them being the national coach position.

“It’s probably going to be a question of whether we have the finances to carry it. We have an administration and the national coach. Last year we took a big hit from Government [in the Budget] when we went down about three-quarters on what we were getting previously.

“We had to cut back on some of the events. Fortunately, things like the World Championships and World Juniors, the IAAF covers our athletes and we just have to pay for the coach that we send. Other events like CAC, NACAC and Carifta have to come out of our budget.

“This year we’ve asked parents to help out way more than we’ve ever asked, for the athletes who are going to Carifta, otherwise we would not be able to fund it at all.”

Raynor acknowledged that with lack of sponsors the upcoming invitational meet will have to be cut back a bit.

“From a prize money aspect, going out and making this thing exceptional, we might have to ‘dumb it down’,” she said.

“But we’ve always had that struggle with corporate Bermuda where we don’t get that much assistance with sponsorship for events that we put on. We’re going to make it happen, because that’s what we do at BNAA, but it is not going to be easy.”

Having funds to send junior athletes to overseas meets is critical as scholarship opportunities can come from that exposure, the president stressed. It could be the difference between a child going to college or not going because of finances.

“Of course finances come into it with Carifta where we have athletes who have qualified, but now have to figure out how we are going to fund it,” Raynor said. “Providing these athletes with scholarships is something we’ve been doing since I was running. Most of us at that time got athletic scholarships and I want to make sure that these athletes coming along now have the same opportunities.

“Fortunately, up to last year we still had athletes going away on scholarships, but if we’re not able to get them out of here to compete, then nobody is going to see them. It’s a Catch-22 for us and I’m just hoping that the new people we have on board can bring some new ideas to the table.”

BNAA will be looking to send about 12 athletes to Grenada, with the last chance for athletes to qualify being on Saturday at the final Carifta Trials meet.

“Right now we’re up to eight and we probably won’t get any more than twelve athletes,” she said. “What people don’t know is that a lot of these young people have been saved because of track and field.

“What people have said is, do we want to put the money on people in the jails or do we want to put the money up front to keep them out of jail?”