More than 12 months after last year's Gran Prix Cristobal de Leon meeting in Santo Domingo, athletes are still waiting to collect nearly $25,000 in prize money owed to them by organizers in the Dominican Republic, according to the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC).

"We have had promises, promises, promises over the past five months," said NACAC President Amadeo Francis, "from the leadership of the federation and from the sports ministry of the government of the Dominican Republic. But there have been no payments either directly to the athletes --as far as we know-- nor to the area association."

According to NACAC documents, prize money payments --ranging from $200 to $1,000-- totaling nearly $25,000, roughly half of the prize purse, have yet to be paid. To developing athletes, the outstanding debts are not insignificant.

"From what we gather, payments were made to one of the managers who took care of his athlete(s) and those of other managers and left the rest of the athletes unpaid," said Francis, who is also an IAAF vice president. "When the matter came to our attention, we approached the federation to seek recourse, but were given the run around which still goes on."

Organizers of the competition did not respond to several email queries.

On behalf of the NACAC, Francis is attempting to collect $13,633 owed to non-Dominican athletes. He said athletes will be paid out of payments impounded by the NACAC that are due to the Dominican federation from the IAAF.

The unpaid debts resulted in the refusal to grant the competition, this year renamed the Felix Sanchez Invitational and scheduled for Saturday, an Area Permit, a sanction that significantly restricts the meeting's ability to recruit top athletes. According to IAAF competition rules, Francis said, invitations for this type of national meeting may not be extended to "athletes appearing in the world's best 100 performance list of the previous year from more than five" member federations, other than the host member.

"We obviously have to take stern measures in this regard since we are committed to developing a circuit of invitational meetings in the area," Francis said. "Failure to meet commitments are injurious to the long term success of our initiatives."

Additionally, Francis said, relay performances at such meetings will not be valid for world championships qualification consideration.

"We are very concerned since the federation's executive has allegedly advised at least one national team that they invited to participate that such performances would be recognized, which they know will not."

Competition on the nascent NACAC circuit include the Grand Prix Orange in Guadeloupe, French West Indies; the Jamaica International in Kingston; The Grand Prix Banamex in Monterrey, Mexico; and the Harry Jerome Classic in Burnaby, B.C., Canada.

Last month, Francis alerted athletes and managers that they should be wary of accepting invitations to the Santo Domingo meeting, noting that since it was not sanctioned by the NACAC, the Area Association would assume no responsibility for unmet commitments.