Yesterday’s lead article on the sport pages of the Daily Observer serves to shed some more light on the sad state of affairs of the sports infrastructure in the island.

For those who missed it, the article highlighted the sad state of repairs to the all-weather running surface at the stadium east field which the majority of our world-class home-based track athletes are forced to use.

The article and photos showed holes in some parts of the track that is used mainly for practicing starts, as well as the wear and tear of the inside lanes.

Just a few months ago, the Jamaican government wasted millions of dollars for a poorly planned series of events to welcome home the athletes who did so well at the Olympics Games held in Beijing.

While I have no problem with any event held to recognise our track and field ambassadors, maybe the government would serve the sport much better if they paid more attention to the facilities the athletes have to use.

There are only four all-weather tracks, two of which need to be replaced with urgency, namely the one at the stadium east complex as well as the one at the GC Foster Sports College which is so badly worn, those who use it liken it to running on concrete.

The one at the still-to-be completed Montego Bay multi-sports complex at Catherine Hall is off limits for even competition as work which has lasted nearly 10 years are – they tell us – at a critical juncture.

It is a shame that an area such as central Jamaica that has provided so many great track and field athletes over the last few decades still does not have an all-weather track.

Yet the government spends these massive sums of monies to put on parties. Where exactly is the priority?

And it is not just track and field either. Just about every other sport can point to lack of or shoddy facilities.

There is still just one Olympic-sized swimming pool in the entire island and so those outside of Kingston who are talented enough either have to move to Kingston, commute weekly or give up the sport.

There is just one proper hockey venue, located in Mona, one indoor sports facility, also located in Kingston… am I the only one who sees a trend here?

Instead of waiting until the athletes achieve success far outweighing the effort put in by the powers that be, it is high time the government and those empowered to do the job, started thinking ahead and start putting in the proper facilities.

Who knows how many other track stars, swimmers, hockey players or football players missed their chance due to the lack of proper facilities, or worse got hurt by playing on uneven surfaces?

It is high time the government started to put in the help where it would give more persons a chance to succeed instead of waiting until they succeed to put on lavish parties.