Not please at all with the readiness and performance of our athletes at these games with the exception of Cedenio of course.
What do you suggest the problem and solution is regards readiness?
check this article out Pro
https://www.facebook.com/trackalerts/posts/704827696220414
REVIEW OF T&T AT THE 2014 WORLD JUNIORS
By Clayton Clarke, July 28th (TrackAlerts.com)T&T junior athletes just completed their campaign at the 20th IAAF World Juniors in Eugene, Oregon, USA with one gold medal courtesy Machel Cedenio, following his victory in the men’s 400m finals.
Our soca athletes finished joint 15th on the medal table and there were top eight performances for the women’s 4x100m team, missing out on a medal in the finals taking fourth.
Jonathan Farinha had the distinction of become the lone male double sprint finalist at the meet making the medal round in the men’s 100 and 200m finals. Farinha (J) then helped the men’s 4x100m squad to sixth in the finals.
Shakeil Waithe was fifth in the men’s javelin finals while Reubin Walters finished sixth in the men’s 110m hurdles finals with a personal best time of 13.52. Based on top eight finishes T&T was 17th overall. T&T has won gold at the last three consecutive World Juniors and has medalled every year since 2000!!!.
The performances were indeed commendable and I guess we could all forget the preparation and selection challenges that existed before the team left for Eugene.
First of all, arriving to a World meet just two days before the start is not good enough. I understand the team was to leave on Friday 18th. What was the reason for the delay. The delegation left at midnight on Saturday and arrived sometime on Sunday morning. After rest and check-in the team only had Monday to get adjusted to the time difference, jet lag, the accommodation and track.
The time difference is an issue as Eugene is three hours behind TT time. This means that our young athletes may have been getting up at 3am/4am in Eugene in keeping local time here (6am/7am)in TT. Over the past two years I have heard comments by NAAA persons that team training sessions are not necessary when athletes are preparing to leave for global meets.
The focus seem to be just to come together for relay practices.
Yet, there are certain athletes under their coaches who are training to get up at the times when their events are scheduled so they can get accustomed to time adjustment. In other words, if that athletes has a race that gets underway at 2am local time, the parent was advised to get the athlete up and train or stretch. Commendable preparation strategy.
However, why was this routine been suggested and implemented for other athletes. A training camp would have helped immensely or arriving in Eugene well advance to the start the meet.
Cedenio commented after his race in the preliminary of the men’s 400m that he was struggling with jet lag, having travelled all the way from Europe where he was competing in preparation for the World Juniors. If one day of practice ahead of major championships was enough then the NAAA should say.
At the 2012 World Juniors in Barcelona, Spain the national contingent arrived just in time for the start of the meet and did not even had time to visit the stadium, far less to get in a training session.
I could just imagine the response by the NAAA-a lack of funding.
Secondly, for the last two years, NAAA president Ephraime Serette had gone on record at the end of the Carifta Games saying that our athletes will be kept together to prepare for the upcoming meets (last year Pan American Juniors, this year World Juniors).
Yet that promise was not realized as according Serrette, coaches are not willing to release their athletes for training camps. He added that lack of funding is another issue. Of course team manager of the World Junior team, Jim Clarke, speaking before leaving for Oregon, boasted that the athletes were in training since Carifta. It appears that he and Serrette were speaking from different notes.
Team selection was another issue.
The men’s 4x400m team went to Eugene with the fastest time in the world and was the reigning bronze medallists.
National Junior 400m champion Theon Lewis was omitted from the line up. According to reports the NAAA declared that he was not fit to go to the World Juniors. My issue with this situation is not about Lewis but about how the NAAA goes about informing the public.
An athlete who have made a standard was dropped from a team yet the NAAA does not see it fit to give an explanation.
According to report, Lewis did not travel to the CAC Juniors prior to the World Juniors on medical advice. As it turned out Asa Guevera was below par in the individual 400m prelims and did was below his best int he 4x400m relay.
The result-our men’s 4x400m runners did not qualify for the finals.
Manager Clarke, when asked said Lewis was not fit.
However Lewis had in his possession at the airport a medical declaring his readiness to compete.
Other reports tell of Nicholas Landeau almost being axed from team after he dropped out of the 800m and did not run the 1500m at the CAC Juniors. But the ‘secrecy’ has been keeping with the modus operandi of the NAAA. Remember the no-comment on the omission of the Collingwood brothers from the 2010 World Juniors team? What about the ”we don’t have to give the media an explanation to our procedures”- response by Serrette on the exclusion of Darrel Brown from the 2011 World Senior team?
I am not sure how different preparation and procedures for this year’s World Juniors were from previous editions. For one Dexter Voisin has the manager our team since 2008 so he should now and have a model to with. This year he was the head coach so I am sure he is familiar with what is to expect. So when I hear manager Clarke and Voisin say they were expecting more from our athletes I am wondering if they were basing their expectations along with the challenging our athletes were faced.
Or it is just about medalling, medalling. Our team can’t arrive at a World Juniors and expect to just give their best.
The Jamaican athletic federation has come under fire recently for the discontinuing for junior training camps of the 2000’s which according to some has benefited their athletes tremendously.
One positive note I want to highlight is the presence of the NAAA Public Relations Officer Peter Samuel in Eugene. Samuel have been posting videos of races and interviews with our athletes as well as photos. Great job Samuel.
I am sure the track and field fans and the public were happy to follow the exploits of our athletes.
If I am not mistaken this is the first national team in a long time where the PRO accompanied the team.
He was the manager of the 2007 Pan American Junior team (I not sure how much coverage he was able to provide then).
Since his re-election as PRO, Samuel has really stepped up his coverage.
In his next outing you could consider providing the media with press releases as you and the NAAA are aware that there were not local media present in Euguene as the World Juniors clashed with the Commonwealth Games and priority was given to the Commonwealth Games .
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author (Clayton Clarke) and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, trackalerts.com.)