BY HOWARD WALKER

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras — The Jamaican delegation are up in arms with the Local Organising Committee (LOC) and the Hilton Princess Hotel in San Pedro Sula after several of their players were involved in a freak elevator accident on Friday.

Head of delegation Garfield Fuller said the Jamaicans have written to the hotel management and are awaiting a response on the incident that left two players with what has been deemed minor back and knee injuries.

Deshane Beckford, Ajeanie Talbott, Jahlanie Hammond, Antoniel Mullings, Akeem Chambers, Javain Brown, Fabian Grant, Demar James, and Donovan Dawkins all boarded the elevator at the third floor before it crashed in the parking garage, zipping past, in a free fall their stop on the ground floor.

The shocked players had to claw their way out of the defective ride and were later taken to hospital Bendana for X-rays.

James and Beckford came

out the worst with knee and

back injuries.

“On instruction from our team doctor (Dr Bersa Cole) we rushed them to the nearby hospital to get X-rays done on two of the players, Demar James and Deshane Beckford, who were complaining that they were feeling pains,” said Fuller, who is also the president of the Portland Football Association.

“Subsequent to that, we have met as management and have formally sent a report to the hotel Manager Mr Gabriel Giron. We have also copied the letter to our General Secretary Raymond Grant and CONCACAF’s Director of Competitions Mr Horace Reid, and to CONCACAF accounts managers Mattheau Brasil and Carlos Fernandez, and we are looking forward to hearing from them,” he added.

“The situation right now is that we are awaiting some word, as we view this as really dangerous in the malfunctioning of the elevator,” he reiterated.

“The players are pretty scared and frightened and one player mentioned it was like an heart attack because of the pace at which the elevator crashed to the ground. We just give God thanks that we didn’t experience the worst,” said Fuller.

After the nightmarish experience, some players and staff members have opted to take the stairs.

“The players are reluctant, but some still take the elevator. I myself is reluctant and sometimes I use the stairs,” he noted.