KINGSTON, Jamaica — Lawyers for hammer thrower Nayoka Clunis have announced plans to appeal to a Special Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) following the lack of response from the Jamaica Athletics Association (JAAA) concerning her eligibility for the Paris Olympics.
Clunis’ legal team, comprising Syed Bernard and Emile Crown, sent a letter to both the JAAA and the Jamaica Olympic Association on Wednesday afternoon, demanding an update on her Olympic team status by 5 pm. They warned that they would escalate the matter to the CAS if no response was received by the deadline. As of now, there has been no feedback from either association.
Clunis was initially selected for the JAAA athletics team for the Paris Olympics but was subsequently removed after it was discovered that her name had not been submitted to World Athletics, the sport’s governing body, due to an error by the JAAA.
A special division of the CAS is responsible for handling arbitration of disputes related to major sporting events, typically issuing decisions within 48 hours.
Clunis, who is competing in her first Olympic Games, aims to become Jamaica’s first female hammer thrower to participate since Daina Levy at the 2016 Rio Games.
