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Wellington slams NACAC
July 14, 2021
Keith Wellington, team manager of Jamaica's under-18 and under-23 teams at last weekend's North America, Central America and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) Championships in Costa Rica, has slammed the regional body for the immigration mishap that led to 13 members of the contingent spending a night in a Costa Rican airport.
Wellington, who is also the president of the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA), said the situation arose out of 'administrative bundling' on the part of the organisers, NACAC, and that in his report to the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) he will be making recommendations that he hopes they will suggest to the regional body.
"With this particular situation, I don't think there is anything we could have done. We did as instructed and followed the rules laid out to us. It was just a matter of administrative bundling from the standpoint of the organisers.
"There are recommendations we could make to NACAC but there is nothing that we could have done differently.
"When we write our report to the JAAA, they can share those recommendations with them," he said
Wellington explained that in order to travel to Costa Rica, travellers needed an American or Costa Rican visa.
With much of the contingent not holding either, they were allowed to seek a waiver for those athletes and officials who didn't have the US or Costa Rican visa.
The JAAA submitted a full list of those in need of the waiver to NACAC, who was supposed to confirm the list before they departed the island.
Although the list didn't come, the team departed nonetheless with the assumption that once their list was submitted, the authorities would be aware of their full contingent on arrival.
However, Wellington said on arrival they found out that there was an approval process involved.
"When we got to Costa Rica, the immigration authorities did not have the list. It was actually somebody else who shared the list with them," he said. Wellington said it was at that point that they found out that some persons who they had sought waivers for were not included on the list of approved persons.
"It ended up being that bad because we got to Costa Rica at about 10 p.m. and at that time all the government offices were closed, so it was the next day before the matter was dealt with.
"Minister Grange facilitated the process by making direct contact with the minister of sport in Costa Rica," he disclosed
"But we were told that we should apply for the waiver. We did and submitted all the documentations, including the flight management. So once we submitted all of that they would have been aware of everybody who was going to turn up.
"We did not know there was going to be a process where we were going to be informed of your approval or non-approval.
"If we had known there was a process we would not have left (Jamaica) without the response," he insisted.
He also questioned why Jamaica is only one of three countries, along with Haiti and Nicaragua, not permitted to travel to the Central American country without a visa.
However, he commended the 11 athletes who had to spend the night in the discomfort of the airport. One athlete, Shantae Foreman, missed her event (high jump) the following morning.
"I thought they (athletes) handled it really well. They really gave a good performance and I commend especially those that went through that mishap.
Jamaica topped the medal table with 67 medals (39 gold, 18 silver and 10 bronze) to win the three-day championships.
