Kishane Thompson's coach on why rescheduling Jamaican Championships is a bad idea

Coach Stephen Francis - Image source: Jamaica Star

Kishane Thompson's coach on why rescheduling Jamaican Championships is a bad idea

Abigael Wafula 21:30 - 13.02.2025

The veteran tactician has warned that the potential rescheduling of the Jamaican Championships could lead to some negative impacts.

Shericka Jackson and Kishane Thompson’s coach Stephen Francis has detailed how the change in dates for the Jamaican Championships will affect a lot of collegiate athletes who will be looking to represent the country at the World Championships in Tokyo, Japan.

The championship is currently scheduled for June 26 to 29 but Television Jamaica reported that plans are underway to push the event to a later date, between mid-July and the start of August.

If the event is pushed to those dates, it will first affect the athletes competing at the Grand Slam Track league since the last leg of the event is set for June 27 to 29.

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On top of that, Stephen Francis revealed that they heavily rely on collegiate athletes who are currently in the US and if the dates are moved, the athletes might fail to show up or come for the trials extremely exhausted from the NCAA Championships.

He revealed that it has been the norm to have the NCAA after the Jamaican Championships but with these consultations to change the dates, things will be very different.

“I had spoken to the president and pointed out to him that while the date for the trials that Americans use is good for them, in Jamaica we rely heavily on college athletes,” Stephen Francis told Television Jamaica.

“Our trials are normally two weeks after the NCAA which allows them to be in shape and come and compete and if they succeed, then their coaches in college make arrangements to train them during the summer.

“Without them being on a team, those coaches are not going to be around. We are going to have half of our potential pool of our athletes’ way out of shape and certainly probably not even here.”

Stephen Francis added that the Jamaican youngsters will post faster times in the NCAA and then go for the trials and fail to impress.

The veteran tactician revealed that Americans might not need the collegiate athletes since they have a lot of great senior athletes.

“What we don’t want is somebody to be running 11 flat at the NCAA and turn up at the trials and they run 11.8 or 11.6 or whatever it is,” he shared.

“We must develop these things over the years, there can’t be any harm, from a developmental perspective, it’s fine maybe, for the Americans who really don’t need their college people but we do and those people need to understand that.”

If the dates of the Jamaican Championships are changed, the likes of world under-20 100m champion Alana Reid, Ackera Nugent and Nickisha Pryce will be some of the Jamaican youngsters affected.

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