STARTING this morning and continuing until Sunday night, approximately 350 athletes will be seeking to get one of the 60 or so slots that will be available on the Jamaican team to the Olympic Games in London, which begins on July 27.

Like no other sporting event on the globe, the Olympic Games serves as an alluring call to athletes of all levels and abilities, and unlike the IAAF World Championships, just about anyone who has ever made any national team or not, fancy their chances of suiting up in one of those attractive Puma outfits designed by Cedella Marley.

In reality, however, just a mere fraction of those who will turn out this weekend at the National Stadium will have any real chance of being handed one of the tickets to the globe’s largest sporting spectacular.

So far, barring any catastrophes, just three athletes have already secured their place on the Jamaican team — discus thrower Jason Morgan, triple jumper Kimberly Williams and decathlete Maurice Smith.

In their cases, it is highly unlikely that three Jamaican athletes will attain the Olympic A qualifying standard and beat them at this weekend’s Trials.

Therefore, everyone else from world record holder and defending Olympic sprint double champion Usain Bolt to the up-and-coming teenagers, or over the hill athletes still yearning for that one last shot at the limelight, must perform or will be left out.

Years ago, one former co-worker who cared very little for sport remarked that to call the event a ‘Trials’ was unfortunate as it added to the stress the athletes were going through, in addition to trying to get the better of their colleague for a place on the team.

How then would she select the team and she said there must be another way that did not put the athlete through so much pressure.

Unfortunately, in a country like Jamaica where there are so many talented athletes vying for limited spaces on the teams, Trials or Championships is the only way.

For many, this weekend’s Trials could very well turn to tribulations and athletes could see their years of hard work go down the drain if they fail to make the cut.

Dr Warren Wint, president of the JAAA, said earlier that athletes who have the A qualifying standards would be given the preference over those who did not.

The JAAA’s selection policy states inter alia that the top three finishers in each event “will be selected if they have attained the qualifying A standard for the event…”

One athlete who was stung by this last year was former Green Island High hurdler Roxroy Cato who finished third in the men’s 400m hurdles and after being told he was on the team to the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, was kicked off on the very last day of the qualifying period, after Isa Phillips who was fifth at Trials, attained the A standard at a meeting in Mannheim, Germany.