Warren Blake

There is mounting discontent among the local coaching fraternity regarding a decision taken by the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) to charge a fee of $1,000 or US$12 for accreditation of athlete aids for next week's JAAA/Supreme Ventures Limited (SVL) National Senior Championships, at the National Stadium.

A notice on the JAAA's accreditation website for the eagerly-anticipated meet, Jamaica's Olympic Trials, stated that athletes' coaches, agents, massage therapists and trainers will be subject to the fee in order to gain accreditation for access to warm up and athletes' seating areas inside the stadium.

Some of the island's most influential coaches have made it clear that they are not in support of the move, which is being introduced at the meet this year. Nonetheless, JAAA president Dr Warren Blake is standing by the decision, citing that the funds will be used to "recover cost" assoc-iated with a new online accreditation system.

"All I will say on the matter is that $1,000 is a standard fee and it is being applied in other areas of the world. It has been implemented to recover the cost of the accreditation system," Blake told Star Sports.

"The accreditation system is a major cost and the cost has to be recovered," Blake added.

Racers Track Club head coach Glen Mills is standing by his colleagues and believes that a diffe-rent approach is needed to be taken by the JAAA to recover cost.

"I think the JAAA could have been more innovative in finding a way to address this. They do not do that much for coaches, and so if they have additional cost to prepare the ID (accreditation cards), especially for coaches, they could have got a sponsor and take care of it, that's the least they could do for the coaches," said Mills, who in addition to being Jamaica's head coach at major championships between 1987 and 2009, is the current conditioner of sprinting stars Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake.

accreditation

Mills

"They could have asked the coaches to register with the association and provided them with an ID, have them pay for it and then use the ID for accreditation for all meets. An ID for the meet could have been covered in the budget," Mills added.

"This is a big meet that is going to make millions of dollars at the gate, this could have been avoided and I think the coaches have a case and I sympathise."

Another top coach, Maurice Wilson, who has led Jamaica to the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and last year's IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, supported Mills' position.

"Most of the coaches in this country are the ones that invest in the athletes," said Wilson.

"It's not a matter of the money, it's the principle because it's very difficult for us to assist these athletes, personally for me, it would be a slap in the face of coaches for us to now come and pay a fee to coach the same people that we have invested so much time and money into."

The JAAA/SVL National Senior Championships will be held June 28 to July 1.