In a move to have the 2019 National Championships held closer to the 2019 IAAF World Championships, the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) has changed the date of next year’s local championships.
With the World Championships slated to begin on September 29, the National Senior Championships which are usually held in June, have been pushed back by one month and will now take place at the National Stadium from July 25 to 28, 2019.
The 2019 World Championships start in Doha, Qatar, weeks later than the last day of any previous edition.
The details were presented earlier this week as part of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association’s (JAAA) schedule for the upcoming season.
“We’ve decided on the end of July, and it’s really to put it as close to the World Championships as possible,” JAAA president Dr Warren Blake explained.
The move was also made to prevent the Nationals being held too long before the World Championships and to be an accurate guide for team selection.
However, the new date for the National Championships comes close to the schedule for the 18th Pan-American Games, which start in Lima, Peru, on July 26, with athletics starting on August 6.
More local meets
As a result, the JAAA will be staging more meets at home to give athletes competition as well as a pre-Championships camp.
While the details on the pre-World Championships camp aren’t settled yet, All-Comers meets will be held on May 11, 18 and 25, as well as June 1 to keep locally based athletes sharp for the National Senior Championships.
Boy’s and Girls’ Champs – March 26 – 30
Notable dates on the schedule include Boys and Girls’ Championships, set for March 26-30, the Jamaica Invitational on May 4, the renowned Penn Relays, April 24-27 in Philadelphia, the IAAF World Relays in Yokohama, Japan, May 10-11, and the Racers Grand Prix on June 22.
With the Easter holidays arriving in late April, the Carifta Trials will be contested a week after Boys and Girls’ Championships, on April 5-7. The Carifta Games are back again in the Cayman Islands from April 20-22, after being hosted there in 1995 and 2010.
