Garth Gayle, General Secretary of the Jamaica Administrative Athletics Association (JAAA), has warned ‘bad coaches’ to stop robbing the nation's athletes of their stardom.
According to Gayle, who is also Council Member of the North American and Central American (NACAC) Track and Field Association, some coaches are “robbing this event (JTA/Sagicor Champs) of the talent”
Gayle, who was guest speaker at Wednesday’slaunch of this year’s Jamaica Teachers’ Association/Sagicor National Athletic Championships, did not mince words during his speech
He said this meet provides the best talents and in the past, global stars such as Usain Bolt, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Bridgette Foster-Hylton and Bertland Cameron
But according to Gayle, “there seems to be a few coaches, who are trying to rob this event of the talent.”
He continued: “Why do I say that? This is because they go to the schools’ sports day and they encourage some of these students not to go forward in representing the school at the JTA meet, because they don’t want their other colleagues (other high school coaches) to see them," explained Gayle.
This must stop,” added Gayle, who is also a member of the IAAF Technical Committee.
Gayle promised, “As general secretary of the JAAA, I tell you that any such coach that is known of doing this, they will have to answer. You cannot rob the nation, the sponsors and spectators of the array of talent that we are accustomed to at the JTA/Sagicor Athletics Championships.”
The 2016 JTA/Sagicor National Athletics Championships is scheduled for May 20 to 21.
Approximately 1200 athletes between the ages of 6-17 from 800 schools will compete in 52 events over the two days of competition.
