A turn for the worse, the plot thickens (The Danielle Williams situation)

Dr. Warren Blake, the President of the JAAA, is someone whom I have always admired, respected, and held in high esteem. However, his recent pronouncement that Danielle Williams, the 2015 World Champion in the woman's 100m Hurdles event, will not be allowed to represent Jamaica at the 2019 Qatar World Championship later this year, has left me fuming. The JAAA's boss has made it quite clear that even if Williams emerges the winner of the Diamond league, she will not be allowed to run for the country of her birth. And why is this? Why this hardline buffoonery position and what appears now to be overt victimization of Williams?

Evaluating the decision

Let's look at the silliness of Dr. Warren Blake's and the JAAA's decision. After much protest (and this is Williams' right), the race was allowed to run without Williams. However, there was yet another false start, which resulted in an injury to another athlete, based on the late recall and the athlete stopping abruptly. Clearly, the noise and the continuous explosion in the Grand Stand that unsettled Williams earlier were responsible for this subsequent grand fiasco. So loud was the noise and the confusion that the National Record Holder, Janeek Brown, completed the race untimed and without realizing that the starter's gun had been fired to recall the race after the false start.

The men's 100m Hurdles was eventually promoted on the day's schedule. It too had some drama. Michael O'Hara, who was running very well, clipped a hurdle in the latter stages of the race, and did not finish. There was no doubt in my mind that the lengthy delay in the women's 100m Hurdles final, had made the athlete "cold"; some were thrown off mentally and didn’t give of their very best. It was a case of poor management of the prior incident, occasioned by the alleged Williams' false start, which had put a damper on the entire National Junior and Senior Trials.

The anticlimax

After the men had completed their equivalent event, one would have thought that the officials would have used the time wisely to sort out the kinks relating to the women's 100m Hurdles, especially, seeing that the protesting Williams, had already been removed from the final line-up and that the race was actually ran without her; additionally, it was similarly recalled for a false start.

But spectators were in for the shock of their lives. The officials were confused and could not sort out the issues in their own heads. They used arrogance and knee-jerk responses to scratch the much-anticipated race; the race that pulled out many on that lovely, but anticlimactic Sunday evening. And why was the race not allowed to run seeing that Williams was long ejected? What plausible reasons can Dr. Warren Blake and the JAAA give for the scratching of the women's 100m Hurdles final and for mounting what is ostensibly, a victimization campaign against Danielle Williams?

Is the National Trials about the JAAA or about the athletes; athletes like Williams, who have made gargantuan sacrifices and who have a realistic chance of medaling in Qatar? Why is the JAAA so petty, rigid and inflexible in its thinking, and so opaque and inconsistent in the application of the rules? Who really benefits from the exclusion of Danielle Williams from the Qatar World Championship? Surely, not Jamaica! What are we not understanding in this unfolding saga and thickening plot? Also, why is the JAAA now seeking to go up against the rule of the IAAF, to choose a "wild card" entry for the World Championship that could favor Danielle Williams? Why is the JAAA now attempting to put itself in an invidious position that could prove embarrassing for it and for Jamaica and which could result in a legal challenge by the athlete and her management team? What are the objectives of JAAA?

The way forward

Given that the JAAA has already muffed and blundered, it must now chart a new course with little or no resistance; it must seek posthaste, an amicable resolution of this unfortunate dilemma. The JAAA must now seek to repair the damage and stop being a moronic stickler for rules that have been senselessly applied; rules that did not take into consideration the specificity of the affecting variables. The JAAA must now stop the tough talking and do the following to save face and to restore or to preserve whatever credibility it might have remaining:

1. Allow Danielle Williams to qualify by the "wild card" route.

2. Allow Janeek Brown, the New National Record Holder, an "automatic qualifier" spot.

3. If Williams wins the Diamond League for the other two spots, use the fastest two times leading up to the World Championship, outside the times of the "wild card" and the "automatic qualifier".

In the end, should Williams, the second fastest Jamaican this year, the third fastest in the word this year, the third fastest Jamaican of all times and only the second and most recent Jamaican World Champion in the women's 100m Hurdles, not be allowed to run, it would be the greatest travesty of justice. It would be worse than when the said JAAA, unscrupulously and unjustly, inserted and made Merlene Ottey replaced and ran instead of Peta-Gaye Dowdie at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, even though, the latter was the National Champion of the women's 100m at the Jamaica 2000 National Senior Trials.

Henley Taylor (Sensenya Ben Nyah), Sports Writer.

Sensenya is avid track and field fan who has been covering the sports over the last 30 years. His passion for the sports was fuel when he became a student at Kingston College. Sensenya covers other sports such as football and cricket. He is a Computer Systems Analyst and a trained Pension Adviser. Sensenya is a staple at the major track and field meets in Jamaica.