DOCTOR of Sports Medicine Paul Wright has charged that the that the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) needs to review the schedule of events of the annual Boys’ & Girls’ Athletic Championships which he claims may contribute to over-work of junior athletes.

“If we are talking like they (athletes) are the future of the country, we have to think like they are the future of the country,” said Dr Wright who was addressing reporters and editors at the Observer’s weekly Monday Exchange at the newspaper’s headquarters yesterday.

He noted that when the schedule of events for the ISSA-run Championships is made, no doctor of sports medicine is on hand to offer advice on what is appropriate and what sometimes leads to high stress events being scheduled too close together.

Clarke, who cited the Class One Boys’ 100m and long jump as an example, pointed out that the schedule of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games was changed to accommodate Michael Johnson doing the 200m/400m double.

Meanwhile, Dr Wright was stubborn in his view that the four-day Boys’ & Girls’ championships and the annual Carifta Track and Field Championships which follows the weekend after, are too close.

“We take them to four days of ‘Champs’ and one week later we take them to four days of Carifta and I don’t understand how any parent can do that,” he said.

He added that while some juniors go on to become stars on the world stage, many fall along the wayside.

A shift in dates of one of the events to allow athletes a break was necessary, he added.

Wright added that while he watched the Carifta Games which ended in the Cayman Islands yesterday, it was clear to him that the athletes were tired.

Calabar High School track coach Michael Clarke, who adressed the Monday Exchange as well, supported the views of Dr Wright.