ANGELS, St Catherine — With a number of events, including two major global championships to come in the first half of the year, the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) is well into its preparations to ensure that Jamaica will be well represented, says President Garth Gayle.

Jamaica are set to compete at the World Athletics Indoor Championships to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, in early March and the World Athletics Relays in The Bahamas in early May, a week after the Penn Relays.

The qualifying period for the World Indoors that started in January 2023 ends this coming weekend on February 18, two weeks before that event, which is set to be held March 1-3 at the Emirates Arena, and Gayle said they were expecting a team of over 30 athletes to represent Jamaica.

He also said the JAAA has decided to have local-based camps for the athletes who will represent Jamaica at the World Relays that will be held in Nassau, Bahamas.

“We have been doing some work,” Gayle told the Jamaica Observer at Saturday’s Milo Western Relays at GC Foster Sports College of Physical Education and Sport.

“We have had meetings with the management team and we are confident, based on what we have seen so far, that we’ll have a strong contingent to Glasgow, Scotland, for the World Athletics Indoor Championships this year.”

He said former JAAA president, Dr Warren Blake, will be the team leader, while Maurice Wilson has been named as technical leader.

The JAAA boss added that the championships present another opportunity for some of the island’s high-achieving and up-and-coming talent to gain valuable experience on the global stage.

“Our athletes have continued to do well, and while we may not see some of the more familiar faces, one thing we are sure of is that we will see some of the youngsters who have started to show their worth from [the World Championships] in Budapest, that they will continue their pursuit of glory,” said Gayle.

Gayle said it was doubtful if any of the US-based college athletes, who have been doing well so far this season, will be included on the team as they might have obligations for their schools around the same time.

Of note, there will be a one week break between the Penn Relays and the World Relays; however, Gayle said it was unlikely that the same set of athletes will represent the island at both events.

This year the Penn Relays, set for April, will see the inclusion of ‘Global Relays’ that will be held in association with World Athletics and will award points towards qualification to the World Relays as well as the Olympic Games and will take on greater importance.

“We are already in discussions with coaches and we are going to be moving steadfast and quickly to have some local camps here in Jamaica. There is no need to go far away for this camp, and this is something we had done two, three years ago, and so we are going to continue in that same vein,” Gayle stated.

“We have to work with the coaches of these athletes, but we are confident that all the teams we select for all the events will be strong teams.”

Jamaica has won 19 medals (5 gold, 8 silver, 6 bronze) over the previous four World Athletics Relays to date and ranks as the second most successful nation behind the United States (31 medals) in the event’s overall medal table.

At the World Athletics Indoor Championships, only the United States (268 medals), Russia (145), Great Britain (87), Ethiopia (59), and Germany (57) have won more medals than Jamaica’s 54. However, Jamaica has won more gold and silver medals than Germany and ranks higher than the European nation on the all-time table.