Jamaica Athletics to focus on long distance
According to Dr Warren Blake, the president of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA), a possible coach swap between Jamaica and Kenya is on the front burner again.
Kenya has been a pre-eminent world power in distances from 800 meter to the marathon since the Olympic debut in 1968. Jamaica has not won an Olympic medal in an event longer than 400 meter since 1960 when George Kerr placed third in the 800 meter at the Rome Olympics.
“We had an agreement in principle that we’d be doing a coaching exchange and, possibly, athlete exchange as well,” Blake noted. “They had in fact identified one of their top distance coaches to come to Jamaica and they were willing to send him, even if we didn’t send another coach.”
He says that a Jamaican coach was, in fact, selected, but he subsequently fell ill. After that, the previous Kenyan federation leadership had been embroiled in a corruption scandal. Now, with that situations resolved and a new team in charge of the sport in Kenya, the swap is again on the table for discussion.
