Sport

Ryon Jones, Gleaner Writer

Many Jamaicans have been carrying out their own post mortems on Jamaica's performance at the recently concluded 13th IAAF World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada. Jamaica was only able to garner three medals, representing one of the country's worst showings in recent years.

Jamaica's three medals came in the boys' 100 metres, which was won by Dexter Lee. He also anchored the boys' 4x100 metres team to silver, while the girls' 4x400 metres team took bronze.

Good performance

Jamaica's team manager to the championship, Alfred Francis, who was also team leader when Jamaica won nine and 12 medals in 2002 and 2004, respectively, believes the team gave of their best.

"The team members performed well, a lot of them did season best and personal best and they really gave of themselves in totality," said Francis. "From a management point of view, the most you can ask of a team is for them to give of their best and they did. They were a wonderful set of ambassadors, both on and off the track.

"I don't think there was any less effort where these persons are concerned. This is a much younger team and the fact is, they will mature in 2012," he added.

Francis who is also a Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA) executive member believes the 100th staging of the ISSA GraceKennedy Boys and Girls' Championships took a great deal out of the athletes. In addition, he is of the view that more needs to be done to aid the athletes with their preparations after the annual championships.

Said Francis: "A lot of schools don't pay their coaches after Boys and Girls' Champs, therefore, sometimes the preparation of the athletes is neglected and this is something that the JAAA is going to do something about going forward. There are serious economic constraints but we are going to see how we can revisit the financial support to really have the preparation carried forward and keep these kids in a camp environment where they can peak again for whatever world junior or youth games."

Head coach Julian Robinson shares Francis' views that more needs to done for the athletes between Boys and Girls' Champs and international competitions.

"Maybe the JAAA or the private sector can create a fund to assist coaches, in terms of gas and providing meals for athletes between Champs and World Juniors," said Robinson.

"Money is needed but also the JAAA and the coaches need to develop a structure to deal with this period between Champs and World Juniors if they want to ensure better results," he added.

Compare the performances

Robinson, however, believes Jamaica won all the medals that they were capable of winning.

"If you were to look at the athletes' performances at Champs and compare it to the top performers in the world in their age group, you would realise that the medals that we got were medals that we were going to get," said Robinson. "The medals we did not get were medals that when you compare the performances, we would not have won because many times we are not in the top 10," he added.