Twenty-eight persons from a range of national sporting federations received certificates after completing a Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA)-sponsored course for sports administrators.

The course, which was conducted between February and March, embraced a comprehensive list of topics relating to management of their associations.

The topics covered comprised of event planning and management, sources of revenue, sports medicine, doping and the anti-doping policy framework, mass media and sports, budget and money management, working with volunteers and the use of technology in sports, amongst others.

A number of national federations including cycling, netball, cricket, floor hockey, yachting, aquatics, badminton, triathlon, gymnastics, hockey, sports medicine, rugby, basketball, boxing, taekwondo, tennis, special olympics, paralympics and squash were represented at the course.

The course was conducted under the aegis of the olympic solidarity programme of the International Olympic Committee.

Through this programme, national olympic committees can access a number of world and continental programmes and in so doing provide some measure of support and assistance to national federations within their country.

The JOA will be drawing on these programmes over the next three years to assist individual athletes and teams to prepare for regional games like the CAC Games in Mayaguez in July of this year, the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October, the Panam Games in Guadalajara in 2011 and ultimately the London Olympics in 2012.

Presenters for this first sports administrators course for 2010 were drawn from the JOA executive body, private sector professionals in marketing, finance and public relations, as well as sports educators from the University of the West Indies.

A second sports administration course is planned for November of this year and is likely to target sports administrators of sports clubs and institutions nationally.