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THE highly-anticipated two-leg USA versus Jamaica challenge remains a possibility according to president of the Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association (JAAA) Howard Aris.
"We have had two meetings with the USA Track and Field people, one in Berlin (in August) and one here in Kingston (in October) to try to move forward with the idea of what they call the USA versus Jamaica Challenge," Aris told the Observer yesterday, noting that both associations are interested in pursuing the venture, provided the necessary sponsorship can be identified.
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"Things like sponsorship have to be looked at, primarily television, so we are not going to set any deadline as such. What we do know is that we have to meet again very soon before the year ends," the JAAA boss said.
Eight months ago on March 7, Doug Logan, the CEO of USA Track and Field (USATF), hand-delivered an initial letter to NACAC president Neville 'Teddy' McCook inviting Jamaica to engage in a home-and-away series in 2009 that would pit the two nations' sprinters and hurdlers against each other in head-to-head, team-scored competition. The clash was pushed back because of a clash of dates on the IAAF calendar of events.
Yesterday, Aris indicated that dates for the two legs of the challenge are still to be decided.
"We have not set a time line, we are working at our leisure because we want to be careful about what we do," he explained.
"What we have agreed upon so far, are the easy ones (issues); the idea of one meet in Jamaica and one meet in the USA. They are looking at somewhere on the east coast," Aris disclosed.
"The other elements require further discussions (so) they were supposed to send back information in terms of what we have agreed upon like one in May, one in June. They want to have the first one here in Jamaica, but it depends. We don't have an agreement on which one is where first."
Meanwhile, Aris indicated that the initial proposed list of events have been down-sized with the long jump, 4x400 and sprint medley relays being omitted.
"It's now the 100m, 200m, 400m, hurdles and sprint relays... We agreed on those events tentatively so far. One of the things which is going to be a challenge to both association is which athletes we'll be able to deliver, but that's a bit early still," the veteran sports administrator noted.
"We are just dealing with the concept of making it happen, the feasibility and the profitability," Aris added, noting that the USATF has indicated that it has sponsors lined up.
"It is their idea, we are working along with them, but they are the people driving it."
source: observer
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