Cook Islands Beach Games participants are outraged by Cook Islands Sports and National Olympic Committee (CISNOC)’s decision to delay the 2024 prize giving by three days.

An eleventh-hour announcement from CISNOC that the prize giving would be held today instead of Saturday, when the annual event concluded with the beach volleyball competition, has not gone down well with some participants.

In a Facebook post on the Cook Islands Sports page on Friday at 10.11pm, CISNOC announced: “Prizegiving will be held on the 23rd of January at 5pm. Reminder to all Teams, start practicing your cultural items to perform for our judges. There will be prizes for the cultural performances so make sure you are looking sharp. Congratulations again to all our winners so far and goodluck to our teams competing in volleyball tomorrow.”

Reacting to the post, one person said: “What seriously. Who is going to come then? The hype is gone …”

Another person commented: “This is a bit disappointing when the post was made a day before, with no notice to the managers (you have our emails and phone # from the registration forms) … Is there a reason for postponing the wrap up?”

A concerned parent said her young boys’ team all planned for a great afternoon at the prizegiving only to find out it’s been postponed.

CISNOC disabled the comments section following the outburst.

Cook Islands News yesterday contacted CISNOC president Hugh Graham and secretary general Owen Lewis for comments.

The two, along with other CISNOC executive members, were on Aitutaki for a weekend retreat and were due back yesterday.

The retreat which started on Friday was held to decide on Lewis’ role with CISNOC. Lewis has recently been confirmed as the new Ministry of Education secretary.

Following the announcement on Wednesday that Lewis had accepted the Education role, Graham took to social media: “Our Secretary General has officially informed me that he has accepted a role with the Ministry of Education. We are obviously proud of Owen at this time. The executive board will be discussing the matter at our executive board retreat this weekend and will provide an update to our membership in due course.”

On Friday, Cook Islands News asked Graham to confirm where the retreat was taking place, who would be attending, what would be discussed, what it would cost, and if Lewis had resigned from his CISNOC role.

The newspaper followed up yesterday, and Graham replied: “Working on it in between meetings ... should have something to you by tomorrow (today).”

• Additional reporting by Al Williams