NEWLY-elected president of the National Association of Athletic Administrations (NAAA) George Comissiong is ready to get down to work, following the local governing body's Annual General Meeting (AGM) and executive election on Saturday.

Comissiong's slate earned a clean sweep of the executive positions.

Having served as acting president since the resignation of Ephraim Serrette in February, Comissiong is looking forward to meeting with his executive team on Thursday.

In an interview on Monday, Comissiong said, 'High on the agenda is the reconstitution of the 11 sub-committees of the (NAAA). While we are 11 board members, there is more work than 11 people can possibly do. That is supposed to be spread across the 11 sub-committees.'

He continued, 'One of the first agenda items is, in fact, in the constitution of those committees. This is where we are expecting that the particular youth and expertise that the young directors (would) bring.

'There is an athlete sub-committee and that committee is supposed to focus specifically on the needs of athletes, to represent their interests (etcetera). That is not to say that they would not be on the other committees but that's a best example of where their particular expertise would prove useful. We have a voice for the athletes.'

Comissiong is hopeful that local track and field can resume, in full, in 2022, after two years of sporadic events due to the government-imposed covid19 restrictions.

'We need to take care of our calendar for 2022, which really would focus on how we kick-start athletics for the 2022 season,' said the NAAA president. 'It would be a work-in-progress because we know that the restrictions, as it relates to covid, keeps changing. We still have to make some assumptions and this might happen by January, but certainly we need to have, in place, a programme of events, so that once the necessary approvals are there, we can start functioning (and) moving forward.'

He added, 'We have some items that we need to bring closure to, appointments of trustees and signatories for the bank account. While we would have had some discussions which would have guided the development of the five pillars which we used as our campaign (promises), we need to start putting on some flesh, with regards to that.'

In terms of planned events for 2022, Comissiong said, 'We have the Carifta Games. That has been approved. It was supposed to be in Guyana but Jamaica has been announced as the new hosts.

'We have the Commonwealth Games, we have the World Athletics Championships. The scheduling of those events will (affect) our calendar. If you're talking Carifta, you'll need to schedule (the) Carifta trials, you'll have to have some meets prior to the trials so that the athletes get some measure of competition.'

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