JISA needs $7.5m for World University Games

The Jamaica Intercollegiate Sports Association (JISA) has until the end of this month to raise about J$7.5 million needed to complete its budget to send a 32-member delegation to the World University Games (WUG) in Gwangju, South Korea, from July 3-14.

The 2015 delegation currently being selected is to include 22 athletes, mainly from track and field, and could include 100-metre world leader Elaine Thompson and Julian Forte, as well as 10 officials.

However, while some of the money has been raised, JISA has been finding it difficult to raise the remaining funding.

"The future of track and field depends upon the nurturing of our succession planning with our rising stars, and so investing in tomorrow's champions today will guarantee a dynasty that we will all benefit from significantly," said Garfield Coke, whose company, Garfield Coke Management Company, has been entrusted with raising the much-needed money.

Should JISA not be able to acquire the needed funds, the size of the delegation could be reduced by more than half.

deadline

"Our deadline is definitely May 28. To ensure a lifeline in Jamaica athletics, we would not want to be a day too late and a dollar too short, and be denied the showcasing of a Jamaica team on the global stage that would definitely be an indictment and very embarrassing to all patriotic Jamaicans! Help us please!" Coke urged.

The World University Games is an international multi-sport event organised for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation.

The Universiade, as it is known, is an international sporting and cultural festival staged every two years in a different city around the world, representing both winter and summer competitions. During the Games, athletes compete across 21 sports competitions, including athletics (track and field), archery, badminton, baseball, basketball, diving, fencing, football, golf, gymnastics, handball, judo, rowing, sport shooting, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball and water polo.

gold medals

Over the past two championships - 2011 and 2013 - athletes like Commonwealth Games shot put champion O'Dayne Richards, Olympic bronze medallist Hansle Parchment, Commonwealth Games 200-metre champion Rasheed Dwyer, as well as Carrie Russell and Anneisha McLaughlin, have all won gold medals at the WUG while students of the University of Technology and the University of the West Indies.