‘It is a disgrace’

VETERAN TRACK and field coach Glen Mills has publicly criticised the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) regarding the number of Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) team officials it will accredit to travel to the Paris Olympic Games.

Mills expressed disappointment with the number set by the JOA, saying 14 persons is an inadequate figure to manage a track and field team expected to field more than 60 athletes.

He said for a nation with the reputation in track and field Jamaica has, it is a ‘disgrace’ to see the JOA’s decisions.

“I have been to nine Olympics. It is a disgrace that you have to be fighting to get the required number of coaches, the required number of therapists and doctors to go with an Olympic team that is probably rated number two or three in the world,” said Mills.

According to Mills, his experience as the Jamaican technical director and coach at several international competitions in the past gives him expert knowledge on what it takes to manage an Olympic delegation.

While the current recommendation is to increase the number of officials to 17, Mills believes the right number required to travel with the team should be 21.

“Seventeen persons for a team of 65 to 70 is totally inadequate. I know that. I have been there and I’ve done that. I have done at least six or seven Olympics as the technical director and coach,” he explained.

“I know what it is to go there and work with so many different athletes and so many responsibilities.”

He added, “How can track and field be struggling to get 17 persons when the minimum based on the requirements should be about 21?”

Honorary Treasurer of the JAAA, Ludlow Watts, also criticised the JOA regarding the allocation of solidarity funds provided by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Watts said in the past, the JOA and JAAA worked collaboratively with the track and field community regarding fund allocation.

However, he stated the practice has now changed with the current JOA administration making decisions without input from the JAAA and the track and field community.

“In the past, the previous administrations of the JOA came to the JAAA and say who are the persons and we would speak with coaches and we’d speak with the clubs and we look at the database and say these are the people we’d recommend,” he said.

“Now, it has changed. The number is now significantly reduced but some of the persons are some of whom would not have been recommended by us and not have been recommended by their clubs.”

Up to press time, efforts to contact the JOA had been unsuccessful.