Gayle has no immediate plans for JAAA presidency
Beijing, China — Despite having the strongest voice in Jamaica’s track and field on the international scene, Garth Gayle has dismissed the idea of running for the presidency of the Jamaica Administrative Athletics Association at next year’s election.
Gayle, the JAAA’s general secretary, was asked by reporters if he was thinking about the Jamaican presidency after securing a seat on the world governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations’ (IAAF) Technical Committee.
“I am very comfortable with the president that we currently have. As you all know I am also a school principal, so I am very comfortable with the contribution that I am making to date,” said Gayle.
The Charlie Smith Comprehensive High School principal was the only one of four Jamaicans to be elected on any IAAF committee at the 50th Congress yesterday.
“These two additions while it wouldn’t take away too much from my day to day duties as a school principal I wouldn’t really want to go any further at this particular moment,” he noted.
JAAA President Dr Warren Blake, Deon Hemmings-McCatty – Jamaica’s first woman to win an Olympic gold in the 400m hurdles at the 1996 Olympic Games, and Allan Beckford were not successful in their bids.
But Gayle, who earlier this month was elected as an ordinary council member of the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletics Association (NACAC), will be Jamaica’s lone voice on the International scene.
“We are now on the cutting edge. The latest of rules and innovations, I will now be able to be a part of those discussions,” Gayle said.
“We are here to enhance the performance of each athlete. The technical committee is to work with all the various elements, the broadcasters, the TVs, the sponsors, spectators… all that going into making that production of track and field the spectacle that it is,” he added.
“The technical committee is here to enhance that delivery to make track and field the number one sport and that will be one of the mandates that I will be taking going forward in my four-year stint on the IAAF technical committee,” said Gayle.
— Howard Walker