Ja’s Blair to chair NAPF’s Sports For All Commission

PRESIDENT OF the National Powerlifting Association Jamaica (NPAJ), Michael Blair, is to have his résumé extended as he is set to take on the role of chairman of the Sports For All Commission at North American Powerlifting Federation (NAPF).

Blair said this came to him as a surprise.

“I was told of it at the Congress,” he said. “I was very much surprised by this appointment, knowing that we (NPAJ) are a young association and as a young president of the association, I guess my actions with the NPAJ made some contribution to my appointment.”

Blair said he is awaiting documents from the NAPF to sign, to make his position official.

A Sports For All Commission, chaired by American Robert Keller, already exists at the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF), but Blair would be the first to be appointed to this position at the NAPF.

Blair, who has been growing the sport among able-bodied Jamaicans, said he is ready to take on this position, which will include the overseeing of the growth of powerlifting among special and para athletes.

He said this was on the agenda for NPAJ, even before he was approached with the new position at the NAPF.

“I wanted our vice president (Alex Sibley) to be responsible to seek and find para athletes and special athletes to get them involved in powerlifting in Jamaica, because that was another venture on our agenda that we wanted to execute,” Blair expressed.

However, with his new position set to start soon, Blair said his focus has broadened.

“For us at NPAJ, I think that everyone should get the opportunity to participate in powerlifting. Now that I have been given that position for a wider region, I will just continue building on what we have in Jamaica and then try to start to expand within the region to ensure we have more athletes participating in the sport of powerlifting,” he said.

Blair said he has a few plans in mind to achieve these objectives.

“For NPAJ, once we have our regular meets in Jamaica, then we will encourage these athletes to come and participate. I would imagine I will be doing the same thing in the region and also the NAPF will also have meets to incorporate these athletes. The last (NAPF) meet that we went to, they had special athletes participating in the tournament but it wasn’t a lot, so I can see that they want to increase the number of these athletes and they have given me that responsibility to execute,” he said.

Like Jamaica’s senior powerlifting team making their international debut this year, Blair hopes he can help Jamaica’s para athletes and special athletes do the same soon.

“We have to find those athletes and ensure they are properly trained, so they understand the rules that govern the sport. And we must ensure that they are properly trained to participate. I’m sure that other people in the region would have been ahead of us because they (their teams) would have existed long before us, but we are going to take it stage by stage,” Blair said.