DESPITE being somewhat tarnished at the end, courtesy of a negative election campaign, Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) President Dr Warren Blake is reporting a successful 2012 for the local governing body.

“We’ve had a very good year in the Junior programme and also in the Senior programme; we have had one of our best ever years at CARIFTA and also we repeated that feat at the Olympics, so all in all, it has been a good year for track and field,” Blake told the Jamaica Observer.

Jamaica won 78 medals, including 34 gold, 25 silver, and 19 bronze, at the 2012 CARIFTA Championships in Bermuda and claimed a record 12 medals at the 2012 Olympics in London, comprising four gold, four silver and four bronze.

The road proved bumpy just ahead of the November 29 JAAA elections where Blake was re-elected president. The campaign surrounding the election — which also saw Lincoln Eatmon and Grace Jackson also contesting the top post — was somewhat negative, which was disappointing for Blake.

“What I didn’t like was the negatives that came out during the campaigning that the other teams tried to use as their campaign strategy,” he said.

“In going forward and plotting a new course in track and field, there had to be new changes in the team and when the changes were made, some people were not all together happy… and some people had their own ambitions that they wanted to realise.

“But I expected that the executive would have been returned because we have been there for some time and we have shown that we have had success and we are capable of leading track and field,” he stated.

Blake said fortunately, while the immediate effect was a negative one for his team overall, he expected the JAAA to emerge in good standing.

“It has had some negative effects, but I don’t think it has long-term because when people see that we’re doing business in a clean and above board way, they will have no hesitation in continuing doing business with us. I’ve already started to mend fences with the sponsors who were put off by the negative campaigning,” he said.

“No negative campaign came from my team and we’re the ones now in power, so they (sponsors) see that we’re people they can do business with,” Blake added.

The orthopaedic surgeon noted that another area the association hopes to improve on is finance.

“…Although we met our bills and we’re looking after ourselves, I would have loved to have ended the year with a bigger surplus. That is something that we have to work on continuously…

“When you do better in track and field, the expenses mount because the better you are doing, the more you have to extend, so it’s almost like a game of chasing your tail.”

He said the need for improvement will mean exploring new avenues to increase revenue of the association.

Meanwhile, the JAAA is looking forward to the new year with the IAAF World Championships being the biggest event on the agenda. But Blake said there are other plans afoot for the development of the sport beyond being the ‘sprint capital of the world’.

Blake said the Kenyan authorities, to whom they made a request, has already identified one of their top coaches from the High Performance Centre in their country who will begin working with the JAAA on developing middle- and longdistance runners shortly, once the logistics of an exchange have been worked out.

“We’re hoping that the success will continue because we’re also looking to expand into other areas apart from the narrow sprints, so we are going to be laying the foundation for the other events,” Blake explained.