With World Athletics President Sebastien Coe spending the next few days on the island, Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) President Christopher Samuda believes engaging directly with athletes and coaches should be a key focus as part of efforts to advance the sport.

Coe was scheduled to arrive at the Norman Manley International Airport on Sunday afternoon. His primary objective is to see how best the world governing body can assist with helping track and field recover from the effects of Hurricane Melissa, which caused significant damage in October.

Among his multiple visits over the next three days, Britain’s double Olympic 1,500m champion Coe is expected to meet with Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Monday and view the Montego Bay Sports Complex on Tuesday.

Samuda believes the sport’s key stakeholders – the athletes and coaches – must be given the opportunity to have discussions with the World Athletics boss.

“We always encourage multilateral discussions particularly involving our athletes and our coaches. I’m hoping that this visit will be in that vein as well where Lord Sebastian Coe will be able to speak with athletes, speak to coaches, just to get their perspective and also to share his perspective as well,” Samuda told the Jamaica Observer.

“We always, as a national body, encourage our president, that is the international president, to have an interface. So, when the president of the International Boxing Federation came, he interfaced, not only with the athletes but with the youth in sport in Montego Bay. When the international president of gymnastics came, he interfaced directly with athletes and coaches. So, we always encourage dialogue, which is healthy, as that is a critical element of development of sport.”

Jamaica’s Nickisha Pryce (left) receives the baton from Roneisha McGregor in the women’s 4x400m relay heats during the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan, on September 20, 2025. Photo: AFP

Samuda also believes the country’s lack of infrastructure development must be a key talking point.

“We know the script in terms of our own development but sometimes it is very important for others to come in and look at that script and give us advice as to how best we can maximise our effort in the interest of sport. And this visit is, I think, in that vein,” he said.

“Infrastructure is very important in sport. If we are to experience true development in sport, then we have to look at the infrastructure and infrastructure is not simply physical in terms of our sporting complex or sporting facilities and venues, but it is also the human infrastructure of sport. How best can we organise the human infrastructure in sport in order to serve the goals and objectives nationally, as well as our sporting federations.”

Coe continues the trend of international sporting federation leaders visiting the island over the past two years, joining officials from FIFA, World Boxing, International Gymnastics Federation, and World Lacrosse.

The JOA boss says it reflects Jamaica’s increasing commitment to the development of sports.

“It has really helped to solidify the relationship between the national body and the international federation. It also gives the international president a perspective of the development of sport nationally and it also encourages a view that there has to be mutuality in the development of sport,” Samuda said.

“Specifically in relation to Lord Coe’s visit, we take it as a signal that sport cooperation and sport partnerships are very much present in enabling social intervention where there are dire national circumstances as we see in Jamaica in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa. It also, for me, deepens my conviction that cooperation and partnerships in sport must transcend national borders and become a global movement of mutuality.”

On Monday, April 18, 2022 during the Carifta Games at the National Stadium in Kingston, Sebastian Coe (centre), president of IAAF, poses with members of Jamaica’s Under-20 4X100m relay team which broke the World Junior Championships record in Nairobi, Kenya, in August 2021. The record breakers, who clocked 42.92s, are (from left) Tina Clayton, Serena Cole, Tia Clayton and Kerrica Hill. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)