PHILADELPHIA, United States — Calabar High star sprinter Michael O’Hara was declared eligible to participate at Penn Relays by the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA), but only after he opted out of his contract with telecoms firm Digicel.

Dave Johnson, director of Penn Relays, said O’Hara had two choices.

“PIAA pointed out that there were two remedies for this situation. That Mr O’Hara could run as a professional without damage here because we would have had a lane for him in the 100m dash on Saturday, or that he and Digicel could agree to nullify the contract and both two parties chose to do that,” Johnson told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

“That then allowed PIAA to restore eligibility, and so PIAA could continue to sanction the Relays and the national federation agreed with the decision. So that cleared us to go ahead, and allowed him to compete here,” Johnson pointed out.

The ruling came in time for O’Hara to represent Calabar High in both the 4×100 and 4x400m relays, which they are highly fancied to win.

The Calabar captain, who was signed by Digicel as their ambassador, was initially barred from Penn Relays on the grounds that he received gifts that other students did not benefit from and was hence deemed a professional.

Dr Walton Small, president of Jamaica’s high school ruling body, the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA), reiterated that O’Hara was banned because he had signed a contract and “as a result of that he was deemed a professional”.

“However, it was taken to court in the United States and based on the ruling of the court the first payment for the contract should have started at the end of April, so there was nothing material that was transferred between the parties,” Dr Small revealed to the Observer yesterday.

“The court has ruled that once the contract is null and void, and since he has not received any benefit then he is deemed to be an amateur and they have rescinded the contract,” he noted.

“So there is no longer a contract between the young man Mr O’Hara and the Digicel company and based on that fact, he is allowed to run and we are comfortable with that,” he added.

Jaheel Hyde of Wolmer’s Boys’ was also ruled ineligible to run for his school. However, it appears he did not reveal his contract to PIAA upon their request and has since laid the matter to rest.

“He did not. They decided more than a week ago to withdraw his entry from high school hurdles and put him in the Olympic Development hurdles,” said Johnson.

Dr Small, who is also Hyde’s school principal, said Hyde had other plans.

“At the outset when the ruling was made, it was pending on the PIAA receiving copies of those contracts. Obviously Mr O’Hara decided to take his contract. I don’t think Mr Hyde had taken his, because he had decided to participate in another area of Penn Relays,” said Dr Small.

“We will be meeting in the first week in June and we will be moving to ensure that we don’t have companies targeting students as individuals. If any organisation want to sponsor any individual it must go through the school.

“All the benefits must be for all the students and not for one child. When we get to the meeting we might have different ideas,” said Dr Small.

Meanwhile, Johnson reiterated that the procedure was the proper one to follow despite the latest ruling.

“We had made inquiries…it took some time to collect a lot of facts and suppositions. Those were presented to PIAA and they gave the opinion based on the facts given to us and the opinion was that, he was ineligible based on what was known,” Johnson pointed out.

“We then told both ISSA and Calabar High school that he’s ineligible because if we let him run, our sanction would have been withdrawn from PIAA and the national federation, so none of the public schools would be allowed to compete against him,” he reiterated.

“That is what triggered the attorneys for both Digicel and Mr O’Hara to file for an injunction against PIAA, also the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Relays for their ruling.

“There was a hearing in Common Pleas Court yesterday [Wednesday] morning at 10:00 am and the judge ruled that PIAA should give Mr O’Hara a hearing which occurred early last evening,” Johnson explained.

Johnson, who has been meet director since 1996, believes more awareness from persons guiding young athletes can prevent such occurrences.

“I think it is just to be aware of possibilities and I think it’s education of student athletes and their parents about the considerations that are offered and the ramification of accepting certain offers. I don’t see anything particularly wrong in ISSA or the high schools. I think this is very much an individual situation and it happens in the United States as well,” said Johnson.