In its continued efforts to deepen and broaden awareness and the popularity of paralympic sport locally and regionally, the JPA successfully secured the endorsement of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to expand the number of paralympic events for the UTECH Track And Field Classic to be staged in on April 13 at the national stadium where many of our local athletes have stormed to international acclaim and international athletes have staked their claim.
The event has also been recognised by IPC as a qualifying event for the IPC Athletics World Championships to be held in Lyon, France in July.
President Samuda and coach, Neville Sinclair, are sitting members of the organizing committee which is being chaired by Dr. Colin Gyles, Associate Professor, Dean of the Faculty of Science and Sport.
Jamaica’s celebrated paralympians will share the stage with their colleagues from the region and beyond and also with our world acclaimed olympians who will be using this international meet to make qualifying marks for the IAAF World Athletics Championships to be held in Moscow, Russia in August while assessing their progress and competition.
The meet promises to be a stellar event and the paralympic events which have been scheduled are as follows:
Female – Javelin F57/58, Discus F57/58, 100m T46 and 400m T46
Male – Javelin F51/52/53, Discus F54/55/56, Shot Put F54/55/56, 100m T46 and 400m T46
Registration is now open to all paralympic athletes and is on line and is accessible via the UTECH Track and Field Classic’s website http://www.utech.edu.jm/sports/classic/.
Patron of the international meet will be internationally acclaimed sport medicine practitioner, Herman Frazier, who was the 1976 Olympic Gold and Bronze Medalist, former Vice President of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), former Board Member of the Friends of the Penn Relays and who, currently, is the Athletic Director at Syracuse University.
The meet will be preceded on April 12 by the staging of the 3rd Annual Caribbean Conference on Sport Sciences at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel which will feature presentations from local and international experts in sport coaching, marketing, administration, journalism, physiotherapy, psychology and nutrition as well as physical education and training.
Jamaica’s Paralympians are on a mission, with vision and purpose, to Lyon, France and beyond.
