The Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) has confirmed receiving notification from lawyers representing discus throw national record holder Jason Morgan of their intention to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) regarding his non-selection as a member of the Jamaican contingent to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, next month.

Dr Warren Blake, president of the JAAA, told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that they received the letter and are “awaiting service of court documents”.

Added Dr Blake: “If they are taking us to court then they must serve us with papers.”

If served with a summons, Dr Blake said the local body would then meet to determine the “next move”.

He insisted that the omission of the 32-year-old Morgan was based on the JAAA’s selection policy.

Despite making the Olympic qualifying mark of 65.00 metres when he threw 68.15m at a meet in Pearl, Louisiana, last year, Morgan, the 2014 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, 2012 Olympian and three-time World Championships representative was left off the 59-member team named by the JAAA on Monday.

“Jason’s history is that he only throws the qualifying distance at one meet and he never repeats. He never even comes within the zone,” said Dr Blake.

“He didn’t come within the top three [at the National Trials], so he has no automatic place on the team. He only throws the qualifying standard at a particular meet early in the season and he never repeats, so it was the view of the selection committee that he should not be chosen,” he noted.

The decision has cast a shadow over the naming of the team and has caused a firestorm of opinion on social media, with a number of present and former national representatives arguing that Morgan should have been selected.

At least one online petition has also started in hopes of forcing the JAAA to backtrack and add the United States-based athlete to the team.

Morgan, who has a season’s best 63.11m, suffered broken metatarsals (bones in the foot) earlier this year — which interrupted his preparation. He was fourth at the Supreme Ventures National Senior Championships — that served as the Olympic Trials — held two weeks ago at the National Stadium. There, he had a best throw of 59.08m.

Fedrick Dacres, who has the fourth best throw in the world so far this year of 68.02m, and who won at Trials with 62.27m, is the only man selected to contest the discus throw in Rio.

Dr Blake said the JAAA has made its decision and has already moved on.

“We are now making preparations for the athletes to move into the pre-Olympic camp.”

On Monday, Morgan had told the Observer he was surprised by his exclusion. “I don’t see no reason for me not to be on the Jamaica Olympic team if I met all the qualifications.”

He was, however, hopeful that the decision would be overturned and suggested his name had been “overlooked”.

“Yes, I believe I will [be named] on (the team). I am a praying man. I know God will deliver. I have been faithful and work too hard honestly for my spot on that team. The world sees it that I have been determined and dedicated,” he added.

Morgan has a history of run-ins with the JAAA.

In 2010, he withdrew from the team to the Commonwealth Games after his request for compensation from the Jamaica Olympic Association was denied as he said he would not be paid by his employers for missing work for three weeks.

In 2013, after asking for and receiving assistance from the JAAA to travel to Jamaica for the National Trials, he failed to show up, and it was later discovered that he attended a swearing-in ceremony to become a US citizen the same weekend, but urged the selectors to include him in the team as he had also made the qualifying mark for the World Championships in Moscow, Russia.