National Sports Policy to be Unveiled Soon

A National Sports Policy will shortly be unveiled by the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture.
The policy is being developed by the Ministry, in collaboration with the Ministries of Industry, Investment and Commerce, and Tourism.
Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Hon. Olivia Grange, made the announcement during a question and answer session, at a press conference, held on September 16 at the Norman Manley International Airport, to welcome three of the athletes who took part in the recent World Championships, in Berlin, Germany.
The athletes were Olympic and World Champion female sprinter, Shelly-Ann Fraser; 400-metre hurdler, Kaliese Spencer; and sprinter, Michael Frater, who captured gold in the men’s 4 x 100 metres relay at the World Championships.
“We have formed a team that is developing what we will be announcing shortly as a nation branding strategy,” the Minister said.
She said the policy would include a programme through which Jamaica’s successes and opportunities created in sport would be exploited.
Citing some of the initiatives taken during the recent World Championships, the Minister said discussions were held with Sport Ministers from several countries.
“We have established relationships now that we never had in the past. For example, we have offers for improving our track in the east Stadium field,” she said. She mentioned, too, that the Ministry has received offers for technical training from South Africa, Germany, Kenya and a number of other countries.
“We also had to agree that we will provide technical assistance to these countries in the sprint events and also in providing them with the information as to how we have been able to create the kind of performances that our athletes have shown,” she added.
According to Ms. Grange, Germany has offered to provide technical support in the Track and Field events, while Kenya and South Africa will provide assistance for the long distance events.
“With the successes that we have had, we were able to negotiate to get offers that we will be able to take up and to be able to leverage our successes to gain that much more for Jamaica,” she said.
The Minister pointed out that Jamaica has done well in the Track and Field events due to the excellent physical education programme in schools, which has formed a good base for young people to pursue various sporting disciplines.