Forbes says JAAA has relay qualification plans under control
Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) First Vice-President Ian Forbes says the organisation will ensure that Jamaica’s relay teams attain the qualifying standards for the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo this September.
Jamaica’s men’s 4x100m and mixed 4x400m relay teams made an unsuccessful attempt to qualify for the Championships at the Barbados Grand Prix last weekend. However, Forbes says another effort will be made to qualify both teams at the London Diamond League on July 19 and again at the NACAC Senior Championships next month.
“We are trying to and all the while we are trying to be stronger but I can’t say anything yet in terms of the composition of the team, but it is something that we are working on,” Forbes told the Jamaica Observer. “I think that if we have the right personnel, we should qualify for these relays, but everything is subject to availability.”
Forbes says the JAAA has been in dialogue with the athletes’ management teams, and those discussions have been positive.
“We are in discussions with the coaches and everybody, and we are engaging everybody to see if we can get the best persons possible, so we are working not just in isolation, we are working with the coaches, managers, agents and everybody,” Forbes said.
At the Barbados Grand Prix, the quartet of Christopher Taylor, Odaine McPherson, Bouwahjgie Nkrumie, and Kadrian Goldson won the men’s 4x100m relay in 38.46 seconds — falling short of the World Championships qualifying time of 38.20 second.
In the mixed 4x400m relay, the team of Bovel McPherson, Jeremy Bembridge, Shana Kaye Anderson, and Roneisha McGregor clocked 3:15.06 minutes to win the event. However, the time was well off the required 3:11.00 needed to qualify for the Championships.
“We are doing everything to ensure that we get these out of the way and we have been doing it for every one of them because it takes money every time we travel to qualify,” Forbes said. “We are trying to ensure that we do it as quickly as possible because we don’t want to wait until the last minute, so we are trying everything.”
