National 400m runner Zandrion
Barnes competes in the Men’s
4x400m relays at the World Athletics
Championships in Budapest, Hungary,
in August 2024.
(Photo: Naphtali Junior)
AWAITING THE BATON
MVP awaits correspondence as JAAA contacts stakeholders to prevent second relay qualifying debacle
The Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) says it acknowledges the importance of collaboration between itself and stakeholders to ensure no more mistakes are made regarding qualifying relay teams for major global track meets. But one club says it has not received any correspondence regarding this season’s plans.
With the World Athletics Championships set to take place in Tokyo, Japan, this September, the JAAA will hope to ensure all its relay teams have put in the groundwork to qualify for the event. This is to avoid another situation like last year when it had to create a special relay race on the deadline day to achieve the qualifying standard for the Paris Olympics in an attempt to have Jamaica qualify for the men’s 4x400m relay event.
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Jamaica’s men did not qualify in the men’s 4x400m relay for the first time since 1948 as none of the three competing Jamaican teams in the four-team race could go below 2:59.12 minutes clocked by Zambia, who took the 16th and final spot at the Paris Olympics last summer. The fastest of the three Jamaican teams in the race, the “Gold Team”, consisting of Reheem Hayles, Sean Bailey, Malik James-King, and Tarees Rhoden, clocked 2:59.87 minutes.
The fallout saw the JAAA scrutinised about its preparations, especially in light of disappointment at Jamaica’s performance at the World Athletics Relay Games in Nassau, Bahamas, earlier in the year. Jamaica needed to qualify on deadline day because it failed to do so at these Games.
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However, JAAA First-Vice President Ian Forbes says the body is being proactive this season to avoid a similar occurrence.
“There was a lot of talk and comments around it, but we’ve been pretty much collaborating with the stakeholders, and we’re not making any moves without consultation,” Forbes told the Sunday Observer on February 6. “Of course, we have to come to some consensus, so we are in pretty close contact with all the relevant stakeholders to ensure that we’re all fully aligned and we’ll be working in the best interest of Jamaica.”
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While the Observer can confirm that the JAAA has contacted stakeholders, MVP Track Club Head Coach Stephen Francis says he has not received any correspondence.
“I don’t know about my colleagues, but they haven’t reached out to me,” Francis told the Observer. “There still seems to be a lot of hesitation and people not wanting to do things differently.”
Francis publicly criticised the JAAA for its handling of the situation last year, describing the JAAA’s executive body as incompetent and called for personnel changes. Eight months later, Francis’s stance remains the same.
“Of course, as I’ve always said, they’re consulting the wrong type of people, because on the JAAA executive there are 16 or 17 people, none of whom know anything about senior athletics — apart from Michael Frater — and I’m not sure how much power he carries there,” Francis said. “But what is required is consultation among people who know a lot about the preparation for the competition among the best athletes in the world.”
But Swept Track Club Head Coach Okiele Stewart says the JAAA has contacted them and he is confident about a different outcome this season.
“I’ve seen circulations from the administration regarding the selection of teams and I’ve not responded to them as yet, but something has come to my e-mail,” Stewart said. “The thing about it is we would’ve learned from last year as to what we need to do and as such, I think we will not be making that mistake again, definitely.”
For Sprintec Track Club Head Coach Maurice Wilson, practice is key as he acknowledges that Jamaica’s quarter-milers are not necessarily the fastest in the world over the distance.
“This is a long-standing discussion that I would’ve had with the JAAA about getting the teams together because we’re running fewer relays in Jamaica than we used to, and so practice is crucial,” he told the
Observer on Thursday. “But once you get to the competitive season, it’s very difficult for you to continue practising. So it is going to require some intercession from the management of the JAAA with the various stakeholders for us to fix this problem. Gone are the days where we have four extremely fast males or females — we still do have them — but there’s much more needed to get the team to perform at the highest level.”
Wilson says he hopes a resolution will be found sometime this week.
