Renowned Coach Glen Mills thinks the Jamaica men’s 4x400m relay team will have a difficult time qualifying for the Olympic Games after missing two opportunities to secure a place during the World Athletics Relays at the Thomas A Robinson Stadium in Nassau, Bahamas, last week.

While staging a legitimate race to offer the chance to claim one of two non-automatic spots is being bandied about, Mills is uncertain Jamaica will be able to bring together their top runners to compete in such a race.

“It’s going to be extremely difficult as [after] not making it at the World Relays we are now fighting for [one of two spots] and the time we will have to run is sub 2:59.00 or somewhere down that level…and that requires the very best we have,” Mills said during TVJ’s All Angles on Wednesday.

The window for qualification is set to slam shut on June 30, the final day of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) National Championships which will be used to select the team to the Paris Olympics. Jamaica’s 4x400m men are currently on the outside looking in, with just two spots left to be decided after 14 teams grabbed their chances over the two days in The Bahamas.

The Jamaicans were just outside the qualifying on Saturday, finishing third in their race and ninth overall, and then placed fifth in their second-round race on Sunday and failed to advance.

Jamaica’s mixed 4x400m, women’s 4x100m, and 4x400m relay teams needed Sunday’s second round of races to qualify, while the men’s 4x100m team advanced on Saturday’s first day.

A number of the island’s top athletes stayed away from the event and Mills, who conceded he was caught surprised that as many as 14 teams would have earned Paris Games qualification in The Bahamas, noted that the timing of the event on the athletics calendar was not ideal.

“The World Relays comes at a very bad time, and as a matter of fact, the World Relays started out fairly exciting, but it began to die, it died, and they [World Athletics] are trying to revive it,” Mills stated.

“I think to ask the countries to be qualified from the World Relays alone is an attempt to give life to the World Relays because it has been cut down to just five events, the mixed, 4x100m, and 4x400m. Previously you had 4x800m, the 4x1500m, and so on, and it’s not an event that can be sustained its own.

“I think they should not have suddenly brought this qualification system, because in the past, Jamaica would have qualified because of their performance last year at the World Championships.

“So this sudden and new change caught Jamaica napping and so we were not able to field quality teams, our usual teams of high quality and the 4x400m men was a casualty.”

The Olympic qualifying aspect of the World Relays was announced at least a year ago by World Athletics. However, Mills said he only found out last weekend. “I did not know about it, it was when I was watching the meet on TV and I heard the announcer stating that 14 teams would qualify out of the 16,” he said.