Palmer expresses faith in youngsters

PRESIDENT OF the Jamaica Cycling Federation, Dr Wayne Palmer, believes the junior programme is making significant strides despite the restraints of COVID-19.

Palmer’s remarks follow Channelle Russell’s silver medal win in the junior women’s road race at the Caribbean Junior Cycling Championship, which was held in the Dominican Republic. Jamaica’s team also secured two fourth-place finishes and one sixth at the recent championships.

“The performance (Caribbean championships) was very good. We had a silver medal, and two others finished fourth and one (placed) sixth,” said Palmer. “So we were just off the podium with two others and another was close. This bodes well, as we have even younger riders performing at the same standard.”

He said credit must go to the national and club coaches, who continue to improve the young riders despite the lack of local competition since the pandemic begun.

“The silver medal was expected,” he told The Gleaner. “We have maintained a strong junior programme in spite of COVID-19, and we have been encouraging our juniors and working with them as best as possible.

“This group represents juniors all over the island and it is a good indication of an islandwide effort by the federation to build the junior programme,” noted Palmer. “And now it has yielded the dividends we were expecting. So going forward, we are looking to build on this, and we are expecting even better results next year.”

Since the pandemic hit local soil in March 2020, cycling competitions were on hold until government approval was granted for the sport to return in May.

During the period of inactivity, Palmer said the national and individual club coaches worked wonders in helping the youngsters maintain international standards.

“One of the challenges we had was, we were training in a vacuum and it was difficult to host competitions during the lockdown, and all that posed different challenges. But as the lockdown relaxed, we have been able to host a few competitions,” he shared.

“We are hoping that come 2022 we will have even more local competitions, so all our riders can be competition-ready,” he continued.

“I must give credit to our national road and track coaches for doing a lot of work with these athletes. I also have to give credit to the local coaches, who have maintained the standard, and even build them stronger,” Palmer pointed out.

“The team came together only a few weeks before the competition. So the national coaches and the individual coaches of these young riders did a lot to bring these young athletes up (to par), which allowed them to perform in the way they did,” he said.

The juniors will next look to the Junior Pan Am Games in Colombia in November-December and Palmer said for those Games, their expectation is greater.

“So the programme has depth, and next year we hope to bring home even more and better medals,” he stated.