Both Richard Carapaz and Jhonatan Narvez have been sent home soon after being found drunk yesterday, at the opening ceremony of the Bolivian Games.
The Ecuador team members were supposedly becoming ready to compete at the reginal multi-sport competition that is held in honor of Simon Bolivar. The event welcomes athletes from Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and Venezuela.
Movistar rider, Carapaz and also Ecuador champion, Narvaez, were both disqualified from the event after getting drunk at a restaurant in Santa Marta city near the location the team members were staying when they were caught by surprise by a group of delegates of the Ecuadorian Olympic Committee (COE).
Damaging their future career and name?
They both will turn pro in 2018 soon after becoming part of the Quick-Step family.
“The cyclists were disrespectful towards a number of the delegates. They did not want to leave the establishment,” a statement from the COE said. It described the teammates being in ‘a state of inebriation’.
“At insistence, they were taken to the Delfin Hotel, the base for the cycling team. However, they attempted to go back out, and were stopped from doing so by members of the technical team.”
Even though the race day won’t come until Wednesday, after several discussions that went all the way to the Ecuador’s ministry for sport, the final decision was to take them home. Now, Carapaz and Narvaez, will have to face disciplinary measures and possible sanctions from the national cycling federation.
“Ecuador’s sporting system is not for people who show that type of behavior,” COE president Augusto Moran, said. “Athletes, as well as competing for medals, must set an example for society in their behavior. And these three cyclists did not do that.”
