JAAA: Late-season meets, September camp for 2019 World Champs athletes

The Jamaica Athletic Administrative Association (JAAA) is planning to host more All Comers meets and have a camp somewhere in the Middle East in September as it confronts anticipated challenges associated with the World Championships in Qatar in 2019.
The World Championships will be held in Qatar from September 28 to October 6, much later than usual because of searing temperatures during the summer months in that country. JAAA President Dr Warren Blake said the JAAA is responding as best it can to ensure Jamaica’s athletes go into the championships in the best shape.
For starters, the 2019 National Championships will be held at the end of July in line with the USA’s championships set for July 25-28, 2019.
“If we don’t do that we are going to run into trouble with people competing on the Diamond League circuit and even with the end of July there are still some problems with that,” Dr Blake told SportsMax.TV on Monday.
“It will create a bit of a logistical problem because even when we had it in June, some people would have to go away and come back.”
The fitness of the athletes is also a major concern for the JAAA president. He argues that with the trials set for the end of July and with the Diamond League scheduled to end in Zurich in August, ways have to be found to keep the athletes fit and ready for competition at the end of September.
In response to this challenge, the JAAA plans to introduce more meets after the Diamond League season ends in Zurich in August.
“We have to make certain that we put things in place for the athletes to have competition because a lot of the competitions are going to end before the championships. The Diamond League season is going to be over, the final Diamond League meet is in Zurich in August and you have a full month, so we are going to have to look at having some more All-Comers meets to ensure that the athletes stay active,” he said.
There are also plans to have the athletes in camp to get them acclimatized to the arid conditions and getting them back to fitness in time for the competition.
“We are going to be insisting on the camps to ensure that the athletes are fit,” he said.
He said the JAAA has had discussions with a number of local clubs about assembling the athletes in a camp in September. “Not everybody is going to be happy with the dates but this is the best compromise we can have,” he said.
He revealed that the JAAA has already launched a search of a suitable site for the camp that will be similar in climatic conditions to Qatar and that can accommodate a camp with the right facilities that will allow the athletes to train in the best possible conditions.
“It might not be Qatar but we are looking at a country in the region and somebody is trying to find us a location that is close to Qatar,” he said. (SportsMax)