The Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) is scheduled to have a second virtual meeting on Friday evening with stakeholders in another last-ditch effort to try and qualify the men’s 4x400m relay team for the Paris Olympics, the Jamaica Observer has learnt.

Fresh on the back of last Sunday’s third failed attempt at qualifying at the NACAC New Life Invitational in Nassau, Bahamas, ideas was adopted by the Garth Gayle-led JAAA to stage a relay race during the June 27-30 national championships.

A meeting was held Tuesday evening where it was heard that “a framework was decided on”, but according to sources close to the situation, “it will require the buy-in from the coaches and agents” if it is to happen.

Reports are that the schedule is to be adjusted for the relays to be held just after 8:00 pm on the final day of the championships but there are differences as to how the event will be held through the championships.

Presently the event was set to be run over three rounds starting Friday and ending on Sunday.

A number of formats, including first-round byes for top 400m runners have been suggested by various track and field interests. But if there is to be a first-ever attempt to qualify a Jamaican relay team at the natioanl championships, a number of changes would have to be made to the schedule in the interest of not overworking the athletes.

One suggestion from veteran track and field officianado and athlete representative, Claude Bryan, calls for the top eight-ranked Jamaican men in the event to be given a bye to the semi-finals, copying the system used at the recently concluded 2024 European Championships.

The first round, he posited, would be run on Thursday’s opening morning, and depending on the number of entries, the qualifiers would join the eight runners who received byes.

This, he said, would give the athletes a chance to recover and be able to run at their best on Sunday. He added: “Anything else is asking the athletes to run three hard races [semis/finals/4x400m] back-to-back, courting [the possibility of] injuries.”

Jamaica has failed to qualify for the men’s 4x400m at the Olympic Games only once, Mexico City in 1968.

Sixteen teams will qualify for each of the five relays at the Olympic Games, 14 booking their spots from two rounds at the World Athletics Relay Championships held in the Bahamas in early May. The other two spots are reserved for the top two teams on times run inside the qualifying period which closes on June 30, the final day of the Jamaican Championships which will be used to pick the athletes for the Olympic Games.

Jamaica are ranked 17th in the men’s 4x400m relays, one place outside the ‘quota’ spots, thanks to the 2:59.34 minutes they ran for fourth at last year’s World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

France with 2:58.45 are in 15th spot and Zambia are 16th with 2:59.12.

Despite qualifying in four other relays, both men’s and women’s 4x100m, the women’s 4x400m and the mixed 4x400m, Jamaica failed twice to qualify in the men’s 4x400m at the World Athletics Relay Championships.

Another attempt last Sunday at the NACAC New Life Championships when the team of US collegians Reheem Hayles, JeVaughn Powell, Kimario Farquharson and Tarees Rhoden — the latter two 800m specialists — ran 2:59.75.