The recently concluded four-day camp for Jamaica’s team to the 13th IAAF World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada, starting next Monday, has been hailed as a success.

Raymond Graham, who will head the technical team to the seven-day championships, said the only draw back was that the camp was not longer. “I would say the camp was 90 per cent a success,”, Graham told the Observer Monday. “I wish we had more time with the youngsters and would get more work done.”

Thirty-one of the 32 selected athletes turned up at the four-day camp that started last Thursday at GC Foster Sports College in Angels, St Catherine, with the only absentee being Junior Trials boys Under-20 sprint double champion Dexter Lee.

Lee, who will also defend the 100m title in Canada, returned to the island last weekend after two races in Europe, including one in Spain last Friday where he lowered his personal best in the 100m to 10.16 seconds while finishing second to Great Britain’s Dwayne Chambers.

On Monday Graham told the Observer that the camp had met most of its objectives and reported that with the exception of minor cases of the ‘flu’, all the participants were injury free.

The campers had two sessions per day, the first one starting at 5:30 am, while Graham said the second session focused heavily on relay practices. “We have to face facts,” he said. “The main area where we will win medals will come in the relays and we used this opportunity to get in a lot of work, trying different formations and line-ups, trying to see who works best where.”

The former St Jago High girls’ coach said the practices also helped the athletes, who are drawn from different schools to get familiar with each other.

Meanwhile, coaching responsibilities were also defined, he said. Head coach Julian Robinson will have direct responsibility for the four throwers in the team; Michael Dyke will oversee the 400m women and the 400m hurdlers; Claude Grant will have responsibility for the male sprinters, sprint hurdlers and the boys’ 4x100m team; Rahnsomn Edwards will take charge of the male 400m runners and the 4x400m relay; Dean Tomlin will take charge of the middle distance runners, while Graham will oversee the female sprinters and the two long jumpers in the team will come under the general coaching staff.

The team will assemble in Kingston on Thursday and will leave for Canada on Friday.