KINGSTON, Jamaica — President of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA), Garth Gayle, said his association will be sending a very strong 4x400m men’s relay team to compete in the NACAC New Life Invitational Championships as they seek to secure the required results to qualify for next month’s Paris Olympic Games.

The meet will be held in Nassau, Bahamas, on Sunday.

The Jamaicans will enter Sunday’s championships with the possibility that they could miss competing in the men’s 4x400m relay at the Olympics for the first time in decades if they fail to secure the required qualifying mark for Paris.

With just two spots to be filled by June 30, the two best times by teams that have not qualified in the qualifying period that opened on December 31, 2022, are 2:58.45 and 2:59.12 minutes by France and Zambia, respectively. The Jamaicans are currently third with a time of 2:59.34, achieved last year at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary. They must surpass France and Zambia’s times in order to secure their qualification for the Olympic Games.

“We have taken a decision that we will be entering a 4x400m team in the New Life Invitational to be held in Nassau, Bahamas, on the 15th of June,” said Gayle. “We believe that the team and those who have indicated their availability will go out there and do a time that will qualify us for the Olympics in the men’s 4×400 metres relay,” he said.

Gayle noted that he is quietly confident that the team selected for the championships will achieve the desired result that will guarantee their place at the Olympic Games in Paris.

“We can only wish for the best because we would have written to all the agents and coaches, both locally and internationally, and those in the collegiate system as well who are performing very well,” he said. “We are looking forward to putting the available team into competition so that we can get that team qualified for the Paris Olympics,” Gayle stated.

He highlighted that patience is necessary with the country’s athletes because most of them have had a very long season and they have always put their best foot forward whenever they are called to represent Jamaica.

“I must also indicate that we must be patient because while we wish for the best and always want to have our teams doing well, there are also times when we will just not be able to field the best of teams. But we seek to do our best for our athletes and for the country,” Gayle asserted.