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JAAA looking to restart season

Published:Tuesday | June 16, 2020 | 12:20 AMAkino Ming/Staff Reporter
Jamaica College sprinters Jonathan Henry (foreground) and Christopher Scott both launch out of the starting block during a training session held at the Ashenheim Stadium on February 20, 2020.
Jamaica College sprinters Jonathan Henry (foreground) and Christopher Scott both launch out of the starting block during a training session held at the Ashenheim Stadium on February 20, 2020.

THE JAMAICA Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) is set to meet with a number of coaches later this week to discuss the restart of competition after the coronavirus pandemic forced the sport to go on hold since early March.

President of the association, Dr Warren Blake, told The Gleaner that the hierarchy of the organisation met last week and has put together protocols meant to guide the resumption of training and competition in a way that will reduce the chances of spreading the virus.

“What happened is that we had our executive meeting last week, a virtual meeting and we have put some protocols in place to resume training and competition and we are trying to meet with the coaches sometime this week to have a discussion about those protocols and also about how we get back into competition,” Blake said.

“These protocols are to prevent the spread of the virus during training and competition. We are going to present them (coaches) with a draft document. It is almost ready and after they have seen it, then we can add their input and we proceed from there.”

If the protocols are accepted by the coaches and with the go-ahead from Government, the JAAA All Comers meets could resume as soon as the end of the month, as according to Blake, the association wants to ensure that athletes who are heading to Europe to take part in the Diamond League and Continental Tour later this summer are in competitive shape to do so.

“We are looking at the number of meets that we can have to get them (athletes) back into competition (shape) because they are going to Europe to compete on the Diamond League circuit and so the local competition will get them ready,” Blake stated.

Blake will also be seeking the coaches’ input on whether to go ahead with the National Senior Championships this year.

“We will also have a discussion on whether or not to have the National Championship because if we do not have a lot of entries, then it doesn’t make sense to have the meet as we do not want to have a final with two people in it.

Some of the coaches so far have expressed a wish for the National Championships and some have said no, but we want to get a better idea to see how many senior athletes we would be able to attract to a National Championships,” Blake added.