Whether the Commonwealth Games and the World Athletics World Track and Field Championships are to be held within days of each other in 2022, athletes might not be forced to choose, depending on the time between their events and how their seasons had been planned out.

Lennox Graham, a member of the coaching staff at Clemson University and who has been part of several Jamaican coaching panels, thinks that while priority will always be given to the “bigger meet”, there is no hard and fast rule that they would have to choose one or the other.

Graham was responding to questions posed by the Jamaica Observer in the wake of ongoing discussions regarding whether athletes would have to choose come 2022 given the close dates of both events as they are on the calendar right now.

From a technical standpoint, Graham said careful planning on the part of the event organisers and the athletes’ coaching staff could prevent them making a choice.

“My thinking is that the dates of non-World Championships and Olympics may change to facilitate the larger event. If, however, it is not changed and there are two championships within a few days of each other, individuals will choose based on the days or weeks between their event, based on the event schedule at the ‘competing’ meets,” Graham said.

The forced postponement of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, from this year to next year has had a domino effect on the international track and field calendar, with the two major Games set to be held within a week of each other in the July-August period in 2022.

The World Track and Field Championships, which was shifted from its original 2021 date, will be held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon from July 15-24, with the Commonwealth Games set to start in Birmingham, England on July 27, just three days later.

Jamaica Athletic Administrative Association (JAAA) President Dr Warren Blake had suggested that athletes might be forced to make a choice as to which event they would take part in.

Montreal Olympic Games 200m champion Donald Quarrie had, however, countered by saying that given the stance of World Athletics to allow athletes to maximise on the meets on offer, they might not have to make that choice.

“Priority would be given to the larger meet, but if an athlete’s event is earlier in the first meet and later in the second meet and the ‘bigger’ meet is meet one, then one could still run both.

“The important thing is that by the time we get to the National Trials the athlete will be asked on their entry to choose the meets he/she is interested in. So at that time, the athlete, in consultation with the coach, will decide whether its one, two or three international meets,” Graham reasoned.

The coach, who has guided the careers of World Champion Danielle Williams as well as 400m hurdlers Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands and Jamaican Kemar Mowatt, said: “The coach makes a plan at the start of the season and that plan can be modified after the full meet calendar is finalised. The full meet calendar includes Diamond League, Continental Tour, Area Permits, National Trials, Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etcetera. “