‘Deeply saddened’ JAAA says it’s ‘making every effort’ for Clunis participation at Olympics
The Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) says it’s “making every effort” on behalf of national hammer thrower Nayoka Clunis to have world track and field authorities allow her to participate in the upcoming Paris Olympics.
It made the statement Monday after the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s (CAS) Ad Hoc Division rejected Clunis’ application to have the CAS hear her case against the JAAA after an administrative blunder by the local body left her name off the list of qualifiers for the Olympic Games.
READ: Clunis to miss Olympics after failed CAS appeal
The CAS rejected the application on the basis that it has no jurisdiction to hear the case.
Commenting on the ruling, the JAAA said: “We note the decision of the ad hoc panel of CAS that they do not have jurisdiction to hear the matter as the dispute arose outside the 10 days window for disputes relating to the Olympic Games.
“At all times we (JAAA) have been supportive of the athlete’s participation at the Olympic Games and in fact had petitioned World Athletics to include her in the list of participating athletes even if it meant increasing the number of participants to 33. World Athletics did not alter their position of 32 participants but maintained that if any vacancy arises it would be allocated to her,” the JAAA said.
The JAAA also highlighted that the CAS “also made note that the respondent (JAAA) would have been unable to provide the relief being sought by the applicant (Clunis) and that World Athletics and the IOC would be the ones that could provide that relief.
“Again, we are deeply saddened that this situation continues and are making every effort in the hope that World Athletics and the IOC will find a way to enable Ms Clunis to compete in the Olympics,” the JAA said.
The JAAA has blamed its administrative blunder on the passing of Hurricane Beryl earlier this month, claiming that the system meant it had no electricity or internet access to update its list with Clunis’ name to be submitted to World Athletics, the international governing body.
