Neville 'Teddy' McCook, secretary general Jamaica Olympic Association, delivering the main address at the press launch of the Sagicor/JTA National Primary, All-Age and Junior High Schools Championships, which will be held at the National Stadium from May 14-15. The launch was held at the offices of the Jamaica Teachers' Association on Church Street on Monday. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

Secretary general of the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA), Neville 'Teddy' McCook, has urged the track and field fraternity to protect the interests of Jamaican athletes.

Since Jamaica's sprint success at the 2008 Beijing Olympics - where the country's athletes won all the 100m and 200m gold medals - McCook said Jamaican athletes have come under heavy scrutiny on the international stage.

McCook said the landscape of athletics and sport in general has changed and it is important that the discipline of the sport be maintained in order to protect its development in Jamaica.

"We must be vigilant and protect the sport," McCook said at the launch of the 26th renewal of the Sagicor Life Jamaica Teachers Association National Primary, All-Age and Junior High Schools Athletic Championships on Monday.

"There is this feeling that based on what happened in Beijing last year that it is something that just came about," McCook said.

"In all of the interviews I did in Beijing, and since then, when people say to me how come all of a sudden Jamaica is doing well, I have to point out to them that its not the case," he added.

Drain on local athletics

McCook said over the last 30 years, between 50-75 athletes per annum received scholarships to overseas universities.

He said the average student "who lands in any city and walks off the aircraft and has never seen so many lights in his life, then decides that this is home".

He indicated that, as a result, we lose a majority of our good athletes, who use overseas opportunities to change their residential status and do not return home.

In the same breath, he congratulated the University of Technology (UTech) for giving opportunities to youngsters to develop in the sport and advance their studies here at the same time.

The University of the West Indies, he said, should also spearhead such programmes to facilitate athletic aspirations.

"You basically have a three-year programme and an athlete in the second year of that programme, which also happens to be an Olympic year, he or she is a potential Olympian, why should we destroy that potential," McCook said.

Preparing our sportspersons

The student, he said, should be allowed to sit out the year, the semester or whatever is required and be allowed to achieve his goal and then get back to school as this would help to ensure that Jamaican athletes remain here in Jamaica.

"We can prepare our athletes and do a lot of things right here in our country. It's not that our success is just coming to being, it's that we have managed to keep our athletes here and prepare them well," he concluded.