In addition to occasional unfavourable weather conditions and embarrassingly poor organisation, Jamaica's management team at the 2011 Junior Pan American Championships, which ended yesterday, was also put to the test by a spate of injuries to key athletes over the three days of competition.

Kellion Knibb, who aggravated an elbow strain, hurdler Javarn Gallimore's (torn hamstring), jumper Rochelle Farquharson (left ankle sprain), Janieve Russell (lower back strain), Ashawni Mitchell (quad) and high jumper Petergay Reid were all affected by injuries in the latter part of the championships.

Farquharson, one of the medal favourites heading into the event, could only manage a best of 5.80m - way off her personal best 6.48m, which she posted two months ago and had to settle for fifth place in the long jump, after suffering a sprain to her left ankle. She was later pulled from the triple jump.

penultimate event

Knibb was pulled from the women's shot put while Galimore pulled his hamstring after leading comfortably at the 300m mark in the 400m hurdles final and had to be scratched from the 4x400m relay. Russell, who was second in the heptathlon at press time, had to overcome pain in her lower back, which she started feeling during the penultimate event - the javelin, but rallied to produce a gutsy win in the 800m.

Annastacia Scott and Chrisann Gordon also reportedly picked up an injury during the 4x400m last night.

Team manager Dwight Cunningham gave an idea of some of the challenges faced by the management team in Florida, ahead of yesterday's final day.

"Firstly the meet was poorly organised in terms of the housing, transportation and the food. Our greatest challenge outside of that was that some persons came into the championship with injuries that we weren't aware of, so that gave us some challenge with a skeletal team where no replacements could be made. This affected somewhat the synergy and performance of the team. The doctors, physio, coaches and a couple of Jamaican supporters living in the area rallied around the team to try and get the athletes to perform as best as possible," said Cunningham.

"We had team meetings where we try to encourage the athletes. We decided not to take any chances with some of the athletes as we believe that their future is better than risking them in this meet," Cunningham added.

Carlene Edwards, the team's media manager, was also critical of the provisions made for the Jamaicans and others, but paid homage to the work done by Cunningham and his team towards rectifying some of the problems.

"Particularly on the first day, the transportation system was very unorganised," Edwards stated. Overall, two shuttle buses (56 seaters) were provided to transport athletes and officials from 43 countries," said Edwards.

"It affected the team somewhat because we were not able to have team meetings when we wanted to and it also affected our preparation. However, we have a very great management team in place and they did well to ensure that the athletes remained focus throughout," Edwards added.