Victory at any price?

Gordon Williams, Guest Columnist

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania:

Chest pains bothered Vere Technical's Andrenetta Knight before she competed in one of track's most gruelling events at the Penn Relays here last weekend. She still ran the 400 metres hurdles - and won.

Claudette Allen, a long jumper from Edwin Allen High, complained of fatigue. She also won at Penns.

Kingston College's Stephan Clunis ran the 4x100m relay here, after competing in the 4x400m the same day. According to assistant coach Raymond Graham, Clunis suffers from asthma but was asked by the school's head coach to carry workload which tired the athlete and "robbed" KC of a chance to win. Knowing his medical condition, maybe Clunis risked far more than a championship medal. St Jago's Cavahn McKenzie died after collapsing following a race overseas in February. A heart condition was suspected, although an autopsy proved inconclusive.

St Andrew's Rushelle Burton lined up injured for a 100m hurdles heat at the 2014 Boys and Girls Championships. She pulled up early in the race.

Burton, Knight, Allen, Clunis, McKenzie and an untold number of others who may have entered competition while injured or a health risk have refocused the spotlight on an often-ignored issue - the welfare of Jamaica's student athletes.

BRUNT OF THE GLARE

The cost to win in the competitive world of high-school sports is again being debated among those with stakes in the game. Injured student athletes placed in competition is nothing new in Jamaica, but more observers - though not nearly enough - appear willing to speak out publicly. Coaches have drawn the brunt of the glare.

"Coaches are charged with due care of the athletes," said Keith Wellington, principal of St Elizabeth Technical and vice-president of the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA), which governs high-school sports. "They have a duty that the welfare of the athletes come first."

It doesn't always.

"I'm not going to say that I'm a paragon of virtue, because sometimes I go off instructions when I'm coaching," said former Holmwood Technical coach Maurice Wilson. "But in a case such as Rushelle Burton ... I think a little bit more care should have been shown, in terms of making sure that she was ready to go out there and to run."

Efforts to get an explanation from Burton's coach Leacroft Bolt were unsuccessful. A voice message left on his cell phone on April 11 was not returned. The call to rationalise winning versus student athletes' welfare remains largely unanswered as well.

"What on earth was Calabar thinking?" Dr Rachel Irving, senior research fellow in the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, wrote in an April 13 article for the Jamaica Observer. She questioned why Javon Francis was allowed to compete in the Class 1 200m final "less than three hours" after a taxing 400m final win, where he was noticed "limping" afterwards. Francis limped to the 200 finish.

Coercion to risk injured or unhealthy student athletes comes from multiple angles, sources claim.

"We have to be careful how we blame the coaches, because sometimes they are under external pressure from parents, from the athletes, and from past students," said Wilson.

According to George Forbes, ISSA's competitions officer, there's no official rule - just an "understanding ... by all parties" - that schools won't enter unfit athletes. It's unclear the extent of all injuries suffered by athletes at Champs and how many returned to compete while hurt. But with coaches, athletes, schools and parents often desperate for success, that 'understanding' sometimes wilts under the pressure to win and athletes' long-term future isn't always top priority.

Yet most high-school athletes are children under Jamaican law. Natalie Neita-Headley, minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister, acknowledged here last weekend that "Government always has a role" in protecting student athletes, but admitted "this Government can't monitor every athlete.

"The Government has to create a policy, which allows for every single person to participate in the process," she explained. " ... So all of us, as stakeholders in the process, have a role to play in protecting our athletes."

'Stakeholders' include the governing sports bodies, schools, coaches and parents - the same people in charge now.

POLICY FOR PROTECTION

ISSA allows schools to secure medical care for their own athletes. They decide who's fit to compete. Some observers object.

"ISSA cannot leave the welfare of athletes to individual schools," stated Dr Irving. "Coaches and students are emotional during the Champs period and often winning the Mortimer Geddes trophy is more important than the athletes' health."

Forbes admitted the 'understanding' is sometimes violated.

"Yes, the exuberance will obviously take over," he said.

Wilson offered an option.

"One of the things that ISSA could do - identify maybe about 20 or 30 of our talented core of athletes and monitor them," the current senior national coach explained. " ... To make sure that if these athletes are injured, they are passed fit by someone from a medical team, independent of the school."

Apart from the high cost, that option poses another potential problem.

"If my doctor says to me, 'Listen, you're OK to compete, right', and you get a doctor to come and tell me that I'm not OK to compete, you'll be having legal issues," explained Wellington.

According to Forbes, ISSA provides a "medical person" at football games it is responsible for. It also has medical personnel available to the 2,000 athletes at Champs. But coaches/athletes are not obligated to see them.

Dr Akshai Mansingh, head of sports medicine at UWI, believes medical care for high-school athletes has improved steadily over the years, but more pre-competition assessment is needed. Access to care - not available to all - doesn't guarantee proper care. Plus, money and school ties can influence decision-making.

MORE ASSESSMENT NEEDED

"In Jamaica, and in Champs in particular, very often, when they (athletes) do access medical personnel, they go to doctors who have interest in the school, or have some interest but are not necessarily qualified as sports doctors," Dr Mansingh said.

Caution isn't non-existent, however. Zharnel Hughes, of KC, for example, was pulled from the 200m and the 4x100m after reportedly suffering an injury winning the Class I boys' 100m. Francis didn't run the 4x400m final.

But the system remains complex. St Jago's Peta-Gay Williams fell in the 400m hurdles running with a cast on her arm. Yet Williams, wearing the cast, returned to win the Class 1 100m hurdles final. How healthy is healthy enough remains an unsettling issue. Wellington offered a guide.

"They should not be allowed to compete if they are injured," he said. "... One hundred per cent (fitness) would not be attainable at all times ... . If it's 99 per cent and it becomes risky, then I have a problem with it. Eighty-five per cent and it's not risky, then it would not be a concern. The issue is when there's a risk involved."

ISSA, slow out of the blocks, may be finally coming around.

"(Injured athletes competing) is something we probably have to look into in the future," said Forbes, " ... I don't think we have a wholesale number of cases, but there are isolated cases. There are cases that probably come to the fore, but it's something that the ISSA will have to sit down and take a look at, take a definite position."

Before it's too late.

Gordon Williams is a journalist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and gcwilliams82@hotmail.com.