READING, St James — Preparations for Jamaica’s participation at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, are well underway, says Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) President Christopher Samuda.

The quadrennial international multisports event is set for July 23 to August 2.

Jamaican athletes are expected to participate in eight of the 10 disciplines that will offer medals during the scaled-back staging.

“From a management point of view, we are on target,” Samuda said during an interview with the
Jamaica Observer.

“We have convened our management team from last year. We convened it, and we have had meetings with our chef de mission, as well as our general managers. So, from a logistics point of [and] managerial, administrative point of view, we are on target.

“So normally, what we have is a meeting with the various presidents, secretaries general, as well as the managers of the respective sports and what we do is to brief them in terms of what are the protocols, what are the logistics of the games.”

Given the massive costs associated with putting on the games, there have been doubts about the future of event which is open to members of the British Commonwealth. Financial constraints have caused the cutting back of the numbers of events.

Samuda said the cut-backs are understandable.

He added: “There is a feeling that, going forward, there’s only certain cities that are going to be able to host Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games, because it’s a very huge financial undertaking.”

The JOA boss said the future, however, might not be all gloom and doom.

“I understand, however, that the next [Commonwealth] Games, they have quite a few bidders for the games, so I expect that it will go back to normality, where we have about 18 or 24 sports on the agenda.”

Travel arrangements for the Jamaican delegation to get to Scotland, he said, were already in place, given that through the Commonwealth Games organisation, the JOA was able to assist with grants.

“We give a travel grant, and we say to the respective associations, this is your travel grant, you need to ensure that your tickets are booked with the Commonwealth Games. We, of course, have a relationship with the Commonwealth Games Federation, and their local organising committee is constantly in touch with us. They provide the travel grant and we, of course, say to our members, book early, let us know your members early so that we can have a seamless run-up to the Commonwealth Games. So far, everything is working,” Samuda said.

Jamaica is expected to be represented in the sports of track and field, netball, and swimming.

The JOA president told the Observer they were waiting on the commencement of the qualification process in some events in order to make final decisions.

“We will be in the usual events that we always take part in,” he said. “But we are also eyeing taekwondo, we’re going for Judo, we’re going for gymnastics, we’re also hoping to qualify again for lawn bowls, in all about seven to eight sports but we are yet to finalise qualification in some.”