WITH a commitment of nearly $16 million, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe says the organisation is dedicated to supporting track and field programmes across the island as they recover from the effects of Hurricane Melissa.

Coe departed the island on Wednesday following a four-day visit which he met with key stakeholders in Kingston. In addition to discussions with Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness and the executive of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA), Great Britain’s two-time Olympic 1500m champion engaged with a number of athletes and coaches, including at Jamaica College and Excelsior High.

Many schools and clubs are still struggling to get back to their usual routines following the Category 5 hurricane in October which caused catastrophic damage, particularly on the western side of the island. Some coaches have reported that a number of their athletes have yet to return to training.

Coe, during a press conference at the JAAA headquarters in Kingston on Wednesday, says the world governing body will do all it can to help restore normality.

“I’ve learned that there are things that World Athletics can help with. We have expertise, we have experience, we have the ability to recruit external teams and agencies to come to the table to help, and, yes, we do have modest sums available to us in terms of financial resource,” he said. “I’m delighted to be able to announce this morning that through the International Athletics Foundation we will make available US$100,000 to help with those pathways and those programmes.”

“Helen [Delany], my director of development and governance, has also been absorbing the way that we can truly help. At my discussions last night with the JAAA, the executive board, and the principals of local schools and all the constituent parts tell me that there is a role that we can play. But it’s not one that I want to come to the table with glib or fast answers. It is to make sure that those programmes that we can help support, and sometimes even facilitate, have a lasting influence.”

Coe believes sporting associations need to play a critical role in times of disaster.

“For those of you who have known me for a number of years now, in the 10th year of my presidency, my gravest concern was always to make sure that the athletes are able to maintain their training and their competition programmes because that is where our focus, my focus, needs to always be,” he said.

“I’m not an infrastructure organisation, I don’t have the ability to town plan or rebuild damaged communities. But through sport, I know I bring a crucial asset to the table and that is the ability of sport to reach out to communities that have been hard hit one way or another in a way that very few activities can. And, yes, we can bring resource and we can bring programmes and we can bring pathways, but we also, I like to think, bring comfort and hope in times where communities do get occasionally ripped apart.”

Coe says further funds will be raised in April through a 5K event following discussions with Kingston’s mayor Andrew Swaby.

“That was a very helpful, productive, and fruitful meeting, and at the end of that we have decided that probably around the Easter period we will organise a 5K run. The main purpose of that will be to raise funds for the hurricane victims and the programmes that we’ve talked about,” he said.

“I have agreed to become the patron of that race. I’ll see how my training goes in the next few weeks before I make any further commitments about my involvement on the day. And I will also ask some of my friends in the sport to join me as fellow patrons so that you’ve got a few more names to gather around and hopefully raise funds through.”

Coe praised Jamaica’s continued success in global athletics and has urged the JAAA and Government to not become complacent.

“I don’t also think that athletic talent in and of itself is enough. It needs to be supported and suffused through the work of federations, and I consistently and always nod towards the federations because most of the programmes, the success that athletes enjoy, the pathways, the programmes, the coaching structures are fostered and nurtured through the federation,” he said.

“But also, that again is not in and of itself enough if it doesn’t have the political leadership and the finance sitting behind it. And I’ve always made the point that the landscape has to work together. We are only as strong as our weakest link and that is why every element in the sporting landscape has to work optimally, and when it does, you see the results that you have.”

— Daniel Blake