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But the director of the sports council says he stands by the decision. He told us why today:...

Ian Jones, Director of the Belize Sports Council
"The delegation that was to travel on Sunday morning did not go. We had to make a decision and the ultimate decision is that we would cancel that travel. So this year for CODICADER majority of our athletes are no participating. The volleyball, team was already in Honduras so they proceeded to represent us and partake in the CODICADER games."

"Our head of mission has been calling the different delegates in the different sports as well as I have spoken to many of the parents because I had given my personal number to the parents and many of them had called before we had even cancelled with concern about the storm that was in the region. It was not the decision we had wanted to have to make but it was decision we had to make because at that time we were uncertain of what the outcome of the storm would be."

"I had personally called the met department and spoke to one of the senior met officers late Friday night and he told me his exact words were "Mr. Jones we will be getting something we can't say for certain if it will be a storm or a hurricane or what it will be but I would not recommend travelling to Honduras at that time." Based on that and other communications with our ministry we had to make the decision it is not something we can gamble with."

"Consultation was done with all parties that we needed to consult with in terms of making this decision and at the end of the day the decision was made by the sports council with consultation from other parties that we deemed necessary to consult with."

"Now it seems as the storm isn't going to hit but even as we speak the last report I saw from NEMO was that it will make landfall to Belize they still cannot say with certainty that it won't develop into a tropical storm or hurricane."

"I stand by the decision that we made and you know the reality of it is that things turned out or seemed to be turning out just as we would of wanted Belize to not get affected but the reality of it we could not take that chance with kids."

"There is a high probability that we still will be participating. This one as it is stated in CODICADER regulations and most contracts you would find there is always a term called force majeur it means that it was out of our control. We did not expect a storm, we did not predict a storm, we did not want a storm to come but the reality of it is that there was a storm out there, we were to travel by road and I would not risk or take that gamble with anybody's child."

The female volleyball team who was already in Honduras for a previous competition will still be there to represent Belize at the games. They played their first game today against El Salvador today and won in three sets. We will continue to share updates on their play.