MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica — Maurice Wilson, who has served as the national track and field technical director, has come out in support of the suggestion from sprint coach, Glen Mills that the postponment of the Tokyo 2020 Olytmpics to next year due to the COVID-19 pandemic could result in the staging of several other track and field meets in the period.

The staging of meets in July-August, said Mills in an article published in the Jamaica Observer recently, could see a number of meets that were postponed from early in the year being staged.

This, he suggested, would help to salvage the season to some degree and give athletes who have been training since last year the chance to compete.

“I personally believe that the difference between staging meets in the summer and the Olympics is that for the Olympics you could have in excess of 20,000 persons in one community, which in my mind could create a community spread and then a country spread,” noted Wilson, who is also the head coach of the GC Foster College-based Sprintec Track Club.

“However if you are having a one-off meet and things are under control, then it would be possible to stage [it] safely and also persons will be yearning for entertainment as well by then,” he argued.

Wilson said athletes must be given the chance to be prepared for the meets and to be able to perform at a certain level.

“There must be something that is said to the athletes that would give them hope to continue training, as it makes no sense to put on a meet and see mediocre performances,” said Wilson.

“You would want to give the athletes some amount of hope to say keep on training and stay in shape and let us see what happens and then we would make decisions depending on the outcome of the situation,” he continued.

— Paul Reid