JAAA promises safe championships

Safety is a big concern for many Jamaicans as the country’s crime rate remains very high.

Although the National Stadium is a venue where many citizens and tourists go to enjoy sporting activities, areas close to the venue are not the safest as there have been reports of criminal activities such as robberies in the past.

However, the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) has encouraged spectators to come out to the National Junior and Senior Championships, which started yesterday and ends on Sunday, as they have put in place a number of security measures to ensure a safe environment for everyone in attendance.

“All the security arrangements are in place and we are using the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) along with a private company,” logistics officer at the Jamaica Olympic Association, Gregory Hamilton, said on Wednesday. “We have already identified the critical areas that we need to place persons to make sure that our patrons are safe and the championships will be as incident-free as possible.”

Hamilton, who is also responsible for the security operations at the championships, said he will have some extra help from Assistant Commissioner of Police Steve McGregor.

“We have also brought on board Assistant Commissioner of Police Steve McGregor to assist us in the whole security arrangement because security is vital and we are planning to make sure that everyone is safe,” he said.

Major events are usually a target for criminals and recently, cars parked outside the National Stadium’s official car park were broken into during the Jamaica’s Concacaf Nations League match against Mexico on Tuesday, June 14.

Hamilton said the JAAA will be using this incident to help prepare their team to prevent similar activities.

“We don’t know exactly what happened at that match but certainly, we are going to use that as our brief to place persons in the right position so that people’s vehicles and assets will be protected while they are in the stadium compound,” he said.

“We are going to be pre-empting everything that we think may happen and to put in place the necessary security arrangements to make sure that if it happens, that security will be there to protect and to prevent any incidents,” Hamilton said.

He said although the JAAA schedule of events will have competitions ending not too late in the evening, he said this is not a part of the security plan.

“What we are trying is to simulate what will happen at the World Championships when we are doing our various plans for the event, so it has nothing to do with security,” he said.

The championships begins today with the men’s 100m preliminary round being the first event, scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m.