MINISTER with responsibility for sports Natalie Neita Headley has lauded the annual American International School of Kingston (AISK) SportsFeva for its contribution towards promoting sports tourism.

“I congratulate the American International School of Kingston for creating this event; I commend you for your efforts in advancing sports tourism for Jamaica. Indeed, with the schools coming in from across the region, you are creating opportunities for increased sports tourism.

“I applaud the sponsors for seeing the advantages to getting involved at this early stage and I celebrate the achievement of the organisers in continuing to make this event a reality,” she said while speaking at the launch of the festival at the school’s College Green Avenue campus on Tuesday.

The tournament, which started in 2010 with four schools — Lyford Cay International School, Cayman International School, International School of Aruba and Hillel academy, as a local football event dubbed ‘SoccerFeva’ — has since evolved.

In its fifth staging, the AISK SportsFeva tournament will see over 400 students from 20 schools across Jamaica and the Caribbean competing in sports tournaments unlike any others in the region.

This year’s staging will welcome three schools from the Bahamas, Aruba, and the Cayman Islands, to vie with 17 local schools at both primary and secondary levels at three distinct sports: sporting clays, tennis and football over two action-packed weekends.

“Ever since I took up my position as the minister with responsibility for sport and even before then, I have been trumpeting the need for us to expand our sporting portfolio in order to ensure that we give greater support to those disciplines we tend to refer to as the non-traditional sports,” said Headley.

She added: “Globally, we have already established our name and credentials as winners in many sporting disciplines, but we are yet to make the breakthrough in others at the highest level. It is therefore with great pleasure that I greet you at the launch of one of a very few multi-sport events taking place, not just in Jamaica, but across the entire Caribbean region.

“The three sporting disciplines slated for competition over the next two weekends represent a range that as a government we would like to see developed with a view to reaping success over the next five years leading up to the 2020 Olympic Games,” Neita-Headley went on.

The minister, in highlighting the disparity between track and field and other sporting disciplines, recalled the country’s biggest achievement in tennis when Lance Lumsden and Richard Russell defeated the renowned US pair of Arthur Ashe and Charlie Pasarell almost 49 years ago.

“As has been done in track and field, which has achieved great global success for Jamaica, we must change the reality in the other sporting disciplines by providing the requisite support and opportunities.

“This year at the RJR Sportsman and Sportswoman awards no winner was selected for clay shooting, a sport with a very long history here in Jamaica. I think we need to work at changing this for next year,” she noted.

She elaborated that the first step to achieving this goal is by providing opportunities for competition at the youth and junior levels.

“History has shown that the greater the number of competitive events at the junior level, the better the chances for global competitiveness at the senior level. Also, it is well established that the younger you are when you first begin playing a sport, the better your chances of success,” she pointed out.

“Clay shooting has some concerns such as security issues, but these have been well met in the past and the system is well established. Therefore, the introduction of this sport into selected schools across the island can be accomplished if we work at it with the Ministries of Education, Security, and Youth and Culture,” she added.

The tournament will get under way on Sunday with shooting for ClayFeva at the Jamaica Skeet Club (JSC) in Portmore on Sunday.