For almost every athlete at any level of competition, the aim is to compete at the Olympic Games and World Championships for his or her national team.

It is no different for former Albert Town High and St Elizabeth Technical High School sprinter Andrew Fisher, except for if and when he lines up in the first round of the men’s 100m at the Rio Olympic Games in August he will be wearing the red and white of Bahrain and not the black, green and gold of Jamaica where he was born.

Fisher, who is part of the University of Technology set up, switched allegiance last year, along with teammate Kimarley Brown. He told the

Jamaica Observer recently the move was not an easy one.

“Of course it was difficult to make the switch,” he said, after running a season’s best 10.07 seconds at the Jamaica International Invitational in early May.

“It was a decision that took months to come to. I love Jamaica and didn’t think I could live anywhere else,” said the man who has a personal best 9.94 seconds, set in Madrid last year.

He was hesitant to talk about the process that led to his changing allegiances saying initially that it is “private information”. He later told the Observer he was not the one who made the initial contact.

“They came to me,” he said.

“The Jamaican team right now is a hard one to make and we all have ambitions to compete at the highest level, and this was one way I saw where I could fulfil that ambition.”

There are no plans, he said however, to change his name, as some athletes have done.

“No, there will be no change of names,” he said.

“Andrew Fisher is my name, my dad gave me this name so no change. No one asked me to change it either.”

He is, however, impressed with what he has seen of his new ‘home’, and says the switch has been going well.

“It’s been going all right, I am based here though but been to Bahrain once. It’s a beautiful country. I love it there but it’s very hot, way hotter than Jamaica.”

So far he said his training has been going well.

“We are early in the programme but we are putting out some good performances so it is going to be way better.”

—Paul Reid