Fennell expects good showing from Jamaica at CAC Games

Ryon Jones, Gleaner Writer

The 21st staging of the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games to be held in MayagŸez, Puerto Rico, from July 17 to August 1, will see Jamaica participating in 14 sporting disciplines.

The Jamaicans were originally slated to participate in 15 sports, but the Under-23 male football team will no longer be taking part following a decision by CONCACAF to cancel the football competition.

Mike Fennell, president of the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA), further explains the decision.

"The official reason is CONCACAF has withdrawn their endorsement and support for the Games because of unsatisfactory conditions, which includes the playing fields," said Fennell. "There is no problem with the other sports."

Jamaica will have representation in athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, cycling, hockey, rugby, squash, sailing, swimming, table tennis, lawn tennis, tae kwon do and volleyball.

The various teams will start departing on the 14th of July, but will leave according to when they will be in action, among other factors.

"They are leaving in different batches starting from the 14th (of July) because, for example, the basketball people are taking part in the Centro Basketball (Championships) in Dominican Republic so they are leaving separately," Fennell informed.

Squash, rugby teams

The squash and rugby teams will head to Bogota, Colombia and Guyana, respectively, as the organisers in Puerto Rico could not host those sports but have received offers from those two countries.

Despite the challenges involved with managing so many teams, the JOA president believes it is necessary to givethe athletes the exposure.

"These are the Games where we expose everybody, it is a multi sports Games and it is the purest Games in which people can develop, so this is what we use these Games for," said Fennell.

"There are always challenges when you have so many different sports but each team has its own manager and those managers are fully responsible for the conduct of their sport and its overall co-ordination," he added.

Fennell, however, expects Jamaica to do well in a number of sporting disciplines, but is not underestimating the competition.

Fennell said: "We have high hopes in a number of sports, athletics of course, speaks for itself. Basketball, both the men and women, beach volleyball, table tennis, badminton and swimming, all of these have good prospects but of course, a lot depends on who is the opposition and that is an unknown factor."