David Riley, Jamaica’s team leader to the World Athletics Under-20 Championship, said Jamaican supporters should be thankful for the medal count this year, given the adverse conditions athletes faced in Peru, where the event was staged.

Jamaica, with five medals inclusive of four gold and a bronze, finished fourth on the medals table and seventh in the points standings with 59 points.

In 2022 in Colombia, Jamaica had a whopping 16 medals with six gold, seven silver and three bronze and finished second behind the United States of America and second in the points tally with 127 points to the USA’s 166 points.

“The general context of the conditions and the time of year, the performances were creditable,” Riley told Our Today. “It is very difficult to condition the athletes for these kinds of conditions so whatever we get we have to give thanks,” he noted.

“It’s just not the warm weather that we are accustomed to and because we are heavily sprint-based, sprinting is best done when it’s warm. So, we tend to have bigger problems when the temperatures are low,” Riley explained.

Rising star Alana Reid won the 100m and anchored the 4×100 relays to two gold. Kerrica Hill defended her 100 hurdles crown and the boy’s 4×100 sped to victory.

“It’s not easy to compete in winter-type conditions. Just recall when we had similar temperature in Eugene, we struggled a bit and we ended that championship with 5 medals as well,” Riley pointed out.

“When we were in Lille for the Under-18 Championship in 2011, we also struggled with the fluctuating temperature there. It improved a bit. But whenever we attend a championship where temperatures are cold, our team usually does not perform well,” he said.

Outside of the weather, most Jamaicans performed below par and Riley is suggesting that it’s down to the individual coaches to get their athletes to peak at the right time.

Some of the athletes seemed to have peaked at Champs but petered out when representing the country at the global events.

“I think getting ISSA to change the date of Champs is gonna be a huge ask because Champs tend to coincide with so many things with the school calendar,” said Riley “So, it will take a little bit more effort to get those things change. But the individual programme with the athletes and the coach and outlining the season that’s a much lower fruit to be able to pick.”

He added: “So if you have athletes in your group who you believe can rise to that quality, you adjust their training programme to allow for them to be at their best not at Champs, but when the world said come and race with us.”

Riley, who coaches Excelsior, had five athletes representing Jamaica in Daniel Wright, Richard Hall, Demarco Bennett, Nahjada Seymoure and Deschanique Douglas.

“That’s something that you can do. That’s something that I do with my athletes that’s why we tend to have quite a significant number of athletes on the team going to the World Under-20. We structure our programme to coincide with the Trials and ultimately to be at their best later,” Riley noted.

“It’s the individual programme and we are not talking about a lot of persons, we are talking about 50 or so that’s a decision that has to be made by the individual coach and the athletes looking at the overall season, looking at the dates for the championships and specifying which meets do you want to compete and I think that’s probably the best approach to it,” he explained.