A clutch of initiatives was unveiled this week which ought to deepen confidence that Jamaica is moving beyond talk to concrete action, in leveraging the island's prowess in track-and-field athletics even as the country develops the next generation of potential world beaters.

Two of the developments involve the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI).

The UWI has formalised its long-standing partnership with Racers - Usain Bolt's track club that is run by his coach, Glen Mills - that is based at Mona. Second, the International Association of Athletics Federations' (IAAF) High Performance Training Centre (HPTC) has relocated to the campus' Mona Bowl from the nearby University of Technology (UTech).

First, we must admit to a certain ambivalence about the IAAF's move, even though we understand and appreciate the action, especially in the context of the Jamaican Government's decision not to transfer the Trelawny Multi-purpose Stadium to UTech.

Home of the HPTC

Apart from being the home of the HPTC, UTech, as residence of the MVP Track and Field Club, played a pioneering role in encouraging world-class Jamaican athletes to train at home. Asafa Powell, an MVP athlete, led the way by demonstrating that he could be world class and break records although based in Kingston. If UTech had got the Trelawny stadium as the centre of its proposed western campus, around which it could expand its athletics programme, perhaps the IAAF would have come to a different decision.

Nonetheless, given the development of the two institutions and the relative resources they have, UWI (Mona) is clearly a good fit for the HPTC and the formalised arrangement with Racers should enhance value to both institutions.

Clearly, the UWI is the premier tertiary institution in the Commonwealth, with records of excellence in teaching and research. Importantly, too, the UWI's medical sciences faculty, with its expertise in orthopaedics and biomechanics as well as research facilities in nutrition, is located at Mona. The expansion of the campus' electronics engineering capabilities is also relevant. If all these things can be brought together with the planned upgrading of the athletic fields at Mona, allied with the famous names of the track and coaching staff that are available in Jamaica, the possibility of Jamaica extracting real value from the initiative is apparent.

See the possibilities

Hopefully, these developments and the ability of Mona's principal, Prof Gordon Shirley, to see the possibilities, will not fundamentally undermine UTech's programme. We hope that MVP, with its stable of famous athletes, stays put. In that regard, we urge the Government to reconsider its decision on the Trelawny stadium.

There was another notable development in athletics this week which, in some respects, is just as important at the Mona issue, and definitely more emotionally potent: the launch of the Asafa Powell Foundation. Whatever may have been the criticisms of Mr Powell, we have felt him to be an innately decent human being. He reinforced that conviction with the launch of the foundation that is aimed at providing financial and other support to young and aspiring athletes.

Our wish is that this foundation be so structured and managed that it does not, unlike too many such things in Jamaica, quickly falter and collapse. For this is not only a legacy to Asafa Powell, but a statement about decency and ourselves as a people.