NAAA hosts webinar on new World Athletics rules

THE National Association of Athletics Administrations (NAAA) hosted the first in a series of education webinars targeted to key stakeholders in the sport of athletics, on Saturday.

On Saturday, a NAAA media release said, “The exercise focused on the newly introduced changes to World Athletics (formerly IAAF) competition rules.

“Some of the changes directly impact the popular events (sprints, middle-distance, hurdles, jumps and throws) in which TT is often represented at major international meets.”

The lively and interactive two-hour session was facilitated by John “Slim” Andalcio, one of the more experienced local coaches and technical officials.

He is a World Athletics lecturer and member of the International Technical Officials panel. Attendees included coaches and technical officials with external participation by Patrick Mathurin (St Lucia) and Edwin Roberts and Wayne Davis Snr both of whom are based in the US.

In his opening remarks, newly elected NAAA president George Comissiong reminded participants that his slate of candidates for the recently held NAAA elections had campaigned on five strategic pillars among which were a focus on the overall development of the athletes and the enhancement of support systems.

The planned session was intended to do just that – provide coaches, one of the key support elements, with the information relating to the new rules that they, in turn, were expected to share with the athletes under their care.

He cautioned that if an athlete was prepared both mentally and physically, but was disqualified for a rule infringement through ignorance then the coach would not have done their job. He also stressed that technical officials, another key support element, also needed to update their knowledge as they played an important role in ensuring that athletes competed under the right conditions and that rules were fairly and objectively administered.

The webinar was organised jointly by Michelle Stoute Lopez and Dexter Voisin, convenors of NAAA’s Education, Publications and Research (Records) and Technical Development sub-committees, respectively.

NAAA is preparing for the resumption of competitive events with a series of development/preparation meets planned for the Hasely Crawford Stadium and Dwight Yorke Stadium in Tobago.