Jamaica’s largest contingent for CAC Games

The Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) will be sending the largest ever sporting contingent from Jamaica to the 23rd staging of the Central American and Caribbean Games in Barranquilla, Colombia, set to begin on July 19.

More than 180 athletes and 74 officials from 16 disciplines will be donning the black, green and gold at the games.

And president of the JOA, Christopher Samuda, believes it is the meritocratic style of governance employed by the association over the past three years that is causing the massive expansion of sports in the country.

“What we have said to our members is that we are running a meritocracy. Performance is the key word, and performance we are driven by, so if you perform, then we will be quite serious in terms of resourcing your efforts in order to qualify for the Olympics or your international tournament, and they are responding,” Samuda said.

He said in order to build on the expansion, the association will be establishing infrastructure across the sporting landscape.

PROPER STRUCTURE NEEDED

“The first thing that we have to do is to ensure that the structure and infrastructure are there in order to support the expansion on the development. So what we have done is assign directors to various sport disciplines. For instance, the watersports have a director in charge and he works along with the persons who are in charge of those sports belonging to that category to see to it that those sports are developing,” Samuda said.

He said that he also expects to see an increase in the number of medals we take home at the games.

Water polo, wrestling, karate and shooting are the new disciplines that will be represented.

“We are really happy that we are not just here announcing the track and field team,” Samuda said.

The team captains are Shaun Barnes and Chris Binnie on the male side and Sherone Simpson and Alia Atkinson on the female side.

The games will run from July 19 to August 3. – A.M.