Grounded – MVP president bemoans travel complications’ impact on local athletes’ season | Sports

MVP Track Club President Bruce James says that accelerating plans for athletes to compete overseas this year would be difficult because of the new travel measures in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 12 local events have been postponed from this year’s calendar because of issues regarding the pandemic, meaning that a large number of senior athletes have not yet begun their seasons.

Recently, former 100m World Champion Yohan Blake indicated that international competition would be an option because of the inactivity. While international events have taken place recently, James says that for his group, being able to compete overseas now would be difficult, not just to leave the island, but also to return and compete domestically this year.

“International travel has so many other additional requirements now, and a big part of our concern is when we return from international travel,” James told The Gleaner. “If our athletes and coaches were to go an event internationally, when they return to Jamaica currently, [they would] have to quarantine for 14 days, and that would have an impact on training and access to training, and that would really put us at quite a disadvantage.”

TRAVEL POLICIES

Indoor meets have taken place in Europe and the United States, however, travel policies have complicated matters for the season ahead of the elite events, such as the Diamond League, which is scheduled to begin in May, as well as other events on the World Athletics Continental Tour. All of these take place before the Tokyo Games .

Persons wishing to travel to the United States must present a negative COVID-19 test 72 hours before arrival while airlines have suspended flights from the Caribbean to Canada until the end of April. The travel ban on the United Kingdom has also been extended until the end of this month to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 variant.

Athletes normally travel to Europe to compete on the circuit for part of the season, but James says that a solution would have to be found if athletes are to compete both locally and on the international circuit.

“The big challenge, of course, is that the very best competitions require us to travel internationally at some point,” he said. “We are hopeful, though, that we’ll have high-quality opportunities for competition in Jamaica, certainly until we get to a point where travel is going to be a little less [difficult].”

The rescheduled Tokyo Olympics is the priority for Kerry Lee Ricketts, who coaches 2019 World Athletics Championships triple jump silver medallist Shanieka Ricketts. He says that determining international meets for Shanieka would be difficult at the moment, and he is focused solely on domestic meets once they have been approved.

“Based on what’s happening internationally in terms of COVID-19, vaccines and everything, we will make decisions [regarding international] meets from there because we haven’t made any long-term decisions right now.” Kerry Lee said.

daniel.wheeler@gleanerjm.com