NEW YORK (JIS), January 07: In a bid to qualify for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada, Jamaica’s Bobsled team will move its training camp to Park City, Utah in the USA, for the next three weeks.

While in Utah, the four member Bobsled unit will engage in a full schedule of training and competition with teams from within the Western Hemisphere.

During a brief stopover in New York City on Monday morning, January 07, national coach Wayne Thomas told JIS NEWS/NY that he was expecting the team to be in the ‘runnings’ when the Games open in the Northwestern Canadian province.

“Based on where we are now and looking ahead, it should be a cool run up to the Olympics, we are expecting to be there,” he said assuredly over breakfast hosted by Team Jamaica Bickle at The Door Restaurant, Queens, a few blocks down the road from the JFK International Airport, where the five member team was met on arrival by Irwine Clare.

Though acknowledging that the team was new to the sport, coach Thomas said that he was very optimistic after watching the team in training in Jamaica and that starting with the America’s Cup Challenge in Utah this weekend, he will get a better measure on the team’s level of preparedness at this time.

The America’s Cup Challenge to be competed for among teams from the USA, Brazil, Mexico, Jamaica, and the US Virgin Islands, among others, will provide the Jamaican quarter of Hannukkah Wallace – Pilot/Driver; Ramon Burch, Joel Alexander and Marvin Dixon- Brakesmen, with their first major test on the icy slopes that are so unique to the sport.

Thomas stated that overall preparations were on schedule and that the team would welcome any support initiatives from the community at this time.