BASSETERRE, ST. Kitts - THE 37th annual TDC Inter-School Championships are just days away and SKNVibes has decided to highlight the work of one individual that often goes unnoticed.
That individual is James ‘Mologo’ Kelly, who is the Technical Official Representative for the St. Kitts-Nevis Amateur Athletic Association (SKNAAA) and also an Area Technical Official (ATO) for the North America, Central America and Caribbean (NACAC) area.
In a recent exclusive interview with SKNVibes, Kelly spoke about his roles in the positions he holds.
“I prepare the schedule of events, the Technical Bulletins and, due to the fact that I am an IAAF ATO, I ensure that all the meets the SKNAAA does are in accordance with IAAF regulations and also are in line with Regulation of the meet itself.”
Kelly also explained how he goes about scheduling the time table of events for various local meets.
“You have to look at the amount of events and as to how many minutes you should have between events. For instance, if you are dealing with the long jump, each athlete has one minute to complete a jump and you have to take into consideration the time for measuring and fixing back the area. And you would have an idea that those competitions would last this certain amount of time and, as a result, you cannot schedule another long jump between a particular time.”
He added that when planning they have to consider the IAAF Regulation, noting that they have to abbreviate that Regulation because of the time period.
“According to the IAAF’s Competition Schedule and Timing, you should give eight minutes between events for running. But we don’t normally in our competition do that. We do it faster because we have a shorter period of time to work with. For our competition, we have to condense it and put it into a tighter schedule…and that is how I do the schedule.”
Kelly continued: “We also have to look at the age category; what events they are allowed to do. We have to know all the implements and so on and are guided by the amount of persons to participate.”
He however stated that though an athlete may be versatile in many events, there are limitations as to how many events within which he or she could compete, and that makes the scheduling process easier.
“For inter-school, the maximum events an athlete can do is five, and I put all that in the Technical Bulletin so that the schools can be aware of what the athletes can do or cannot do. But it is dependent on the strength of the athlete.”
Kelly is a holder of the IAAF TOECS Level Two Officiating Certificate, the Area Technical Official (ATO) Recognition for NACAC and is also an IAAF TOECS Level One certified Lecturer since the inception of the IAAF Technical Official Education Certification System in 1995.
