National Trials date still undecided

Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association president Dr Warren Blake has promised a resolution for the date of the annual Senior National Championships by the end of the week.

There are suggestions that the national championships, which is used to select teams to represent the country at various regional and international athletic meets, should be moved from its usual end-of-June date to sometime later in the summer, as the IAAF World Athletics Championships is scheduled to be held from September 28 to October 6.

“There are several factors that we have to take into consideration to choose the dates,” Blake said. We are looking at the date of the World Championships.

All of the suggested dates come with problems, but we have to make a decision before the week ends.”

There have been mixed reactions about changing the date from athletes and coaches.

While clearly stating that he will work with whatever date is set by the association, Maurice Wilson, the head of Sprintec track club, says that his programme this season has been geared towards a Championships scheduled for July, as was suggested.

And if the Championships should remain at its usual end of the June date, it will inconvenience his athletes.

“Based on initial discussions, the idea without it being official, was that the meet will be held sometime in July and thus we actually started training late October, which is later than we would normally start,” Wilson said. “So if the meet should move back to June, we would have been behind in our preparation, but I will respect whatever decision the governing body of the sport comes up with.

“In the interest of the sport, and in order not to bring the sport into disrepute, I will abide by the decision.”

But Paul Francis, one of the coaches at the University of Technology based MVP Track Club, believes that it would suit Jamaica’s athletics if the date remains in June.

“If you look at the global calendar, you would see that most of the engagements (athletic meets) are going to be taking place in July,” Francis said. “If the Trial (National Championships) takes place in July, then Jamaican athletes are going to miss two or three Diamond League meets.”

USA Track and Field, the body which governs athletics in the United States, has moved their national championships to the end of July.