January 18, 2007 (Montreal QC) – Canada’s Cameron Mackinnon, Yannik Morin, and Travis Smith need to finish in the top-eight at the team sprint at the UCI Track Cycling World Cup this weekend in Los Angeles, otherwise the team’s funding will likely disappear, reports Sportcom. If funding from the Canadian Cycling Association (CCA) dries up, Morin, 31, may well end his professional cycling career. Mackinnon and Smith, who are registered in individual events, will likely continue regardless.

“They (the CCA) want to invest the money for programs elsewhere, so they’ve raised the bar pretty high,” Morin told Sportcom. “But the World Cup is very competitive and they want us to finish no worse than eighth place, otherwise the team sprint program will be finished.”

“If things don’t work out this weekend, I can forget the next Track World Cup and the Track World Championships. Maybe I could try again at the next Pan American Games. I think that we can win there and maybe that would open their (the CCA’s ) eyes. But even in that case, we have no guarantee. If they want riders to go the Olympic Games, but they need to think about this. One thing is certain; things have been difficult since Eric (Van den Eynde) left,” sighed Morin, referring to the former coach of the national team. Van den Eynde quit his job in October 2006 and no replacement has yet been named.

Sportcom contacted Kris Westwood, Director of High Performance Programs at the CCA who explained the organization’s perspective. “Our problem is that our resources are limited. We’re comparing all of the disciplines and seeing where we have a chance of winning medals or finishing in the top five at the next Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008.” Westwood calculates that Morin’s team has to finish in the top eight spots to get Olympic qualification.

Morin, meanwhile, is mulling over his future: “I like training, but that’s the easy part. Financially, it would be more reasonable (if the team places in the top eight) because otherwise, I am going to have to go into debt. At some point, I’m going to say that’s enough and will stop cycling. And I’d like to have goals of participating at big races, not just training for the Canadian championships.”

“But the worst part of all this, is for our replacements. There are many who are training to eventually take my place. And that’s OK, because it forces me to go faster. But if the (team sprint) program is dropped, everybody may stop training because they know that they’re not yet fast enough to place in the individual sprint, or in the keirin, and their only chance for international races is the team sprint.”

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