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Manager of Jamaica's team to the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) Under-18 and Under-23 Championships in Costa Rica, Keith Wellington, is casting blame on the Costa Rican consulate and the executive of NACAC for Jamaica's dilemma before the start of the event on Friday.

Jamaica will be understrength at the Championships, as visa issues affected their departure from the island, with 27 members of the original 66-named athletes failing to make the trip.

The under-18 girls will be especially affected, as only three members of the original 14 - Abigail Wolfe, Theianna Lee Terrelonge and Jaeda Robinson - are in Costa Rica.

Wellington, also Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) president, argued that the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) did all that was within its powers for the athletes to travel to the event.

"During our National Senior and Junior Championships, we contacted the Costa Rican Consulate to give them the names of athletes likely to make the team for the process of visa waivers because of the time limit to do so, but they wanted a final list, which was not possible at the time," Wellington said.

"Even a last-minute intervention by the Jamaica Government led by the Ministers of Sports and Foreign Affairs did not change things.

"I do not think NACAC did enough to help our cause as we were also in constant touch with its executive several weeks before, but they never did much to support our requests," he said.

According to Wellington, Jamaica will perform creditably, despite the island not having the full complement of participants.

"We are disappointed that we were not able to have the full team assembled here in Costa Rica, but despite the problems, Jamaicans are a resilient set of people, and I am confident that the athletes here will give their best.

"It is very disheartening for those young athletes, especially those from the non-traditional high school teams, who were making their first trip at the national level," Wellington said.