Pan Am Juniors was rough, says Carr

Raymond Graham, Gleaner Writer

MIRAMAR, Florida:

Michael Carr, head coach of Jamaica's team to the Pan American Junior Championships at the weekend, has branded the meet as being "rough".

However, Carr said with a little luck, things could have been much better for Jamaica, who ended the meet with 10 medals to place second overall behind the United States who bagged 59 medals.

"We were badly affected by injuries, especially in the relays as we were short and had to use people in unfamiliar areas; and we were a bit unlucky as we had several fourth-place finishes and with a little luck things could have been better," he said. Carr stated that a pre-meet camp could have resulted in a better showing.

"We had to use instinct to place some of our relay runners in positions, and maybe a one-week camp before the team left could have seen better results. I think they all did well because it has been a very long season for them and they all tried their best," continued Carr.

High praise

Carr, who is also the head coach at Wolmer's Girls' School had high praise for the throwers.

"We got two of our gold medals out of three from our throwers and this is very good for the country, as getting wins in non-traditional events has shown that we are not only a country with good runners. In the throws, we had a national junior record and a championships record," said Carr who also singled out the performance of hammer thrower Daina Levy, who picked up silver in the girl's event.

Carr was, however, not pleased with the whole organisation of the meet.

"I think we were also affected by the transportation system as we were travelling some 40 minutes to get to the meet. The limited amount of transportation provided was a problem. I remember on the first evening we had to wait over two hours after the meet before we left the stadium, and had to return early the next morning for competition," Carr pointed out.