Following Jamaica’s 2008 Olympic 400m silver medallist Shericka Williams’ failed attempt to switch allegiance to Bahrain, JAAA president Dr Warren Blake says his organisation will take a tougher stance on these applications in the future.

Dr Blake said things have changed and the JAAA has taken a position that any athlete wishing to switch allegiance will have to sit out the mandatory three-year waiting period.

“We had applications for some athletes to go and represent Bahrain and we did not raise an objection,” Dr Blake told the

Jamaica Observer yesterday.

“Previously, we allowed the athletes if they wanted to go (to do so). The executive is (now) of the view that we should object in the future and make them wait the mandatory three years and fulfil all the regulations laid down by the IAAF,” he noted.

Under International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) rule 5.4, athletes are allowed to compete for another country after sitting out a period of 12 months once there is no objection from their federation of origin.

In the case of an objection, the athletes would then need to wait for three years before representing their new country.

Last year, Williams, otherwise called “Wire”, applied along with Andrew Fisher and Kemarley Brown to switch from Jamaica and represent the oil-rich Bahrain.

However, Williams, who was 29 at the time of application on June 12, 2015, would have been eligible to participate at this year’s Olympics. But it is understood that Bahrain had a change of heart and is no longer interested in her representation.

“I don’t know the details but our understanding is that she was not amongst those athletes who were granted a transfer of allegiance by the IAAF. I am not certain why,” said Dr Blake.

When news broke in 2015 of the three Jamaicans wanting to switch, Dr Blake explained that they made it clear it was getting difficult to represent Jamaica and they were thinking of migrating to Bahrain and becoming citizens of that country.

But with things apparently not working out for Williams, Dr Blake said the JAAA will hold no grudges and she would be free to compete at Jamaica’s Senior Trials in June.

“If she hasn’t competed for another country, she is still Jamaican and we don’t have any rules that state she can’t compete for us even though she expressed a wish to go elsewhere,” said Dr Blake.

“If she makes the qualifying time and decides to come to Trials, we wouldn’t have any basis to refuse her. Nothing in our regulation to stop her from competing although people might have been upset with her because she wanted to go somewhere else,” he added.

Other Jamaican athletes have switched nationality in the past, most notably multiple world and Olympic medallist sprinter Merlene Ottey, who transferred to Slovenia; 400m runner Brandon Simpson, who went on to compete for Bahrain and Jacques Harvey, now Jak Ali, who recently committed to Turkey.

High jumper Germaine Mason made the switch to Britain in 2006 and won silver at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.