RIDING HIGH on Jamaica's huge success at the Beijing Olympic Games, the president of the Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association (JAAA), Howard Aris, has urged sponsors to support the development of the sport.

Aris, who was speaking at last week's Burger King/Jamdammers Grand Prix road race series launch, urged sponsors not to wait until there is success to show their support.

Aris, while commending Burger King for playing its, said: "It's not often companies come in from the bottom and work with the programme to the top."

Fashionable

"It is fashionable to come in to the top when there is success and when there is attention at the glory," said Aris.

"We in the JAAA always seek to encourage companies to join us in track and field at the bottom, when there is no fanfare, no cameras ... and work with us all the way up because we are only going to go up because if you start at the bottom, you can't go down," he said.

"Not many companies understand that," Aris, the vice-chairman of Independence Park Limited, the body, which runs the National Stadium complex and Trelawny multi-purpose stadium, said.

Aris pointed to Jamaica's success in track and field over the years and noted the special attention this year because of the country's exceptional performance at the Olympics.

Improvement

However, he said: "We still would like to see more improvement in the non-traditional events like distance running and so on," he said.

Aris recalled Jamaica's first outing at the Olympic Games in 1948 in which the country won a gold and a silver "and, therefore, it become expected that each time we go out, we are going to do well".

"This year has set the bar so high," he added.