TASVG mourns loss of regional track and field administrator

Team Athletics SVG joins the region in mourning the loss of Jamaican sports stalwart Neville “Teddy” McCook, who up until his death was the president of the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletics Association (NACAC) and IAAF area representative.{{more}}

Mc Cook died on Monday at the University of the West Indies Hospital in his native Jamaica, after a battle with prostate cancer.

Mc Cook was the guest speaker at Team Athletics SVG’s 2009 awards and presentation ceremony.

President of Team Athletics SVG Keith Joseph, in reflecting on his association with Mc Cook, told SEARCHLIGHT on Tuesday: “I had known Neville ‘Teddy’ Mc Cook for many years. He was devoted to track and field athletics…. As head of athletics in the NACAC area, Mc Cook sought to ensure that athletics in the small islands received due attention; thus he supported the OECS Invitational in St Kitts and sponsored the NACAC 10 k Road Race Series, the last leg of which we hosted here on 9th December 2012”.

In 2007, Mc Cook was elected president of NACAC, narrowly defeating Joseph by a slender one vote in his absence in Osaka, Japan. Mc Cook was re-elected to the post in 2011.

“Even though we were adversaries in striving for the leadership of our sport in our region, we maintained very cordial relations and worked together for the development of track and field athletics”, Joseph noted.

“As General Secretary of the Jamaica Olympic Association Mc Cook sought to bring the enthusiasm he had for athletics to the promotion of sport in his native land”, the TASVG head recalled.

Mc Cook’s other substantive post saw him, in 1999, being elected IAAF Area Representative, a position he held until his death.

The 73-year-old McCook was a marketing consultant and sports administrator by profession and was an IAAF council member and also served on several IAAF committees.

Mc Cook is also a former president of the Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association (JAAA) as the association was known before the name change. (RT)