A case for Class One high school athletes to be tested by the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) has apparently been approved, but Dr Walton Small, president of the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA), has confirmed that there will be no testing of athletes at this year’s staging of the Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships due to some finer details which still need to be ironed out.

“I know that the argument out there is that testing will be done at Champs this year (but) I can tell you that it will not happen at Champs this year,” he told reporters at the meet’s launch held at TVJ’s studios on Wednesday.

In 2013, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, who has portfolio responsibility for sports, in an address to Parliament, made the proposal to initiate a system for high school-level testing for athletes involved in training and competition in sport in accordance with appropriate approvals from the Ministry of Education, ISSA, and the parents and guardians of the athletes.

She also pointed out that it was time to introduce the rules as a part of the physical education curriculum in high schools as GC Foster College of Physical Education has been offering full coverage of the anti-doping rules for over 15 years.

“We cannot prevent it from happening, but we want to make sure that when it happens it is seamless. Therefore, if I am going by the dialogue that we are having with JADCO, we can clearly say it will not happen this year,” declared Small.

He continued: “Once we work out the procedures to have this done with minors, we have to think about what will happen if a school is tested positive…. what is going to happen to the student athlete (and) are they going to lose points; those things have not yet been worked out.

“All those things have to be passed by the principals’ association; we have not done that and that won’t happen in the next two weeks. So from my side of the fence, I can safely say that it will not be done this year.”

With the five-day spectacle set for March 24-28, Small is expressing confidence that track and field enthusiasts will experience an exciting championship.

“At this point we are in high gear; everything is in place… nothing is going to interject now to affect what is happening. We are going to meet with all the stakeholders to ensure that everything is dotted and crossed, so we are very comfortable about what is going to happen,” he said.

Title sponsor GraceKennedy, who has increased its sponsorship to the tune of $38.5 million, along with associate sponsors TVJ, LIME, Gatorade, PUMA, Huawei and the Canadian High Commission, have all laid the platform for the 105th staging which promises to be bigger and better.

“The sponsorship that we get from our main sponsors as well as our associate sponsors is enough for us to put on a very high-class meet, and with that said, it is very important that individuals come out and support the championship. The money from the sponsorship is to execute; we do not dilute our championship’s execution, and therefore, all the monies that we get from our sponsors go into execution,” Small explained.

Small, who is also the principal of Wolmer’s Boys’ School, revealed that the sporting body is in need of additional funds to take care of other sporting activities that fail to attract sponsors, and so he is encouraging the public to come out and “support this activity”.