Marked Improvements By Athletes Under Jamaica-China Technical Assistance Programme

There has been marked improvement in the performance of local athletes, who are being trained under the Jamaica-China Technical Assistance Programme.

This was disclosed by Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Culture, Gender Entertainment and Sport, Denzil Thorpe, during a meeting with representatives of the China Sports International Corporation in Beijing on Thursday (Aug.15).

More than 400 local sports personnel in seven disciplines will benefit from training in China over a three-year period under the agreement, which was officially signed last year.

The specialised areas are synchronised swimming, badminton, basketball, football, gymnastics, volleyball and basketball.

The first batch of 138 athletes, coaches and managers completed a 60-day programme in September 2018. Since early July, the second batch of 138 personnel has been receiving specialised training in China.

“Some of the swimmers that were here last year went back to CARIFTA this year and performed extremely well. We have had people setting national age group records and winning gold medals at the CARIFTA championships,” Mr. Thorpe said.

“We have already heard about the success of the synchronised swimming team that has taken part in a championship here (in China) and their scores overall have improved tremendously,” he added.

For her part, Manager of the badminton team in Yiyang, China, Beverly Baugh, said that the delegation has produced outstanding results.

“Thalia Richardson, she was one of the persons on last year’s (trip to China)… she was able to beat our number one female champion, Catherine Wynter, and we are really proud of the progress so far.

“We also have a player/coach here, Mathew Yee-Grant, he came last year (as a player) so that’s the progress of the team so far and we are happy for the opportunity,” she said.