RIDING on a thriving ‘Champs 100’ wave, leading Caribbean telecommunication’s company LIME has joined forces with the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA) to back the junior programme over the next three years to the tune of $21 million.

LIME Jamaica chairman Chris Dehring, happy to speak on a sport other than cricket, said the sponsorship covered major international and local junior championships.

At a press conference held at the Hilton Kingston Hotel, Dehring noted that LIME would support the national junior championships, the Carifta Trials and Games, the Junior CAC Championships, the Junior Pan American Games, the IAAF World Youth and World Junior Championships and seven annual JAAA development meets.

“Under this sponsorship deal, LIME would become the official communication sponsor of Jamaica’s youth track and field,” he said.

He said LIME would also help in the modernisation of the JAAA’s administration through broadband internet services, telephone services, PBX system and Closed User Groups, “so that the JAAA can talk to each other and at much lower cost”.

He hailed track and field as a passion of Jamaicans which shaped the society, and the JAAA, “based on results”, as probably the “best-run sports administration this part of the world”.

Dehring noted that Boys’ and Girls’ Championships was televised live on mobile phones for the first time in the history of the country.

“This sponsorship will go a long way in securing Jamaica’s future in this sport,” he said.

Meanwhile, JAAA president Howard Aris thanked LIME for its partnership in the development of young athletes.

“We look forward not only to the partnerships in terms of the actual cash value, but moreso to the various elements… in becoming a far more efficient organisation,” he noted.