JAAA cancels 11 meets for this weekend

LOCAL high school and senior athletes will have to wait at least another week before the start of track and field competition as the 11 meets planned across the island for this Saturday will not go ahead as scheduled.

The Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) said a decision was made to postpone the meets after receiving no correspondence from the Government up to 2 p.m. on Tuesday.

"On Monday of this week, we made a decision that if we had not received the written permission by noon on Wednesday, we will move to postpone the meets," JAAA First Vice- President Ian Forbes said. "Up to 2 p.m. yesterday, we were yet to get any indication from the authority. We have advised our planning committees to continue the preparations for the possibility of staging the [Qualification] Trials on February 20, which would mean all Trials have been postponed for one week."

Forbes is hoping that a permit will be issued by that time, with 2021 being an Olympic Games and World Athletics Junior Championships year.

My only concern

"I know that the onus is to protect the health of our athletes, and I do not have any problem with this as my only concern is that we should know the result early so we can contact our stakeholders on time," he said. "The postponement of this weekend's meets came on a day when Ethiopia's Gudaf Tsegay broke the women's indoor world record in the 1500m in Lievin, France. It is with deep regret that I advise all stakeholders of the postponement."

It should have been a busy Saturday for the resumption of track and field competition as meets were planned for St Elizabeth Technical, Herbert Morrison Technical, Discovery Bay, Kirkvine, GC Foster College, the National Stadium, Stadium East, Jamaica College, Calabar High, Excelsior High, and the University of The West Indies.