JAAA extends deadline

Merrick Andrews, Staff Reporter

THE JAMAICA Amateur Athletics Association (JAAA) has extended the deadline for the National Junior and Senior Track and Field Trials to tomorrow with $500 to be charged for late registration in addition to the original fee of $50 per event.

The initial deadline was slated for Friday at 4:00 p.m.

Up to that time, veteran Merlene Ottey and defending 100-metre champion Peta-Gaye Dowdie had not registered for the championships which will be staged from June 21-23 at the National Stadium.

The extension of the deadline is to facilitate the two prominent sprinters who are yet to indicate their intentions to compete, according to a source within the JAAA.

"Merlene Ottey has not registered and Peta-Gaye Dowdie has not recovered from her injury," the source said.

There is, however, a cloud of pessimism surrounding the participation of Dowdie who underwent knee surgery earlier this year, according to the JAAA and information from her school, Louisiana State University (LSU).

Sources within the JAAA said Ottey would run if she believed she was in a condition to do so.

However, Ottey, 41, withdrew from a 60m event in Belgium in February, after complaining of feeling pain during warm ups. She later said the pain was as a result of a muscular injury to her upper right leg which had plagued her for some six months.

The injury had caused her to skip the World Indoors in Lisbon, Portugal in March, when she had a seasonal best of 7.20 seconds over the 60m, produced at the Millrose Games in New York.

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