Jamaican Glasgow 2014 team manager selected as AISTS scholarship recipient for 2015 MSA course

By Nick Butler in Lausanne

Rashid Hall, Jamaica's team manager at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, will receive a scholarship for the 2015 International Academy for Sports Science and Technology (AISTS) Master of Sports Administration course, it was announced here today.

He will become the first ever Jamaican to participate in the course.

At 26-years-old, Hall is already a rising star in sports administration and in 2012 he was awarded the Prime Minister's Youth Award for Excellence in Leadership.

As well as serving as sports coordinator at the University of the West Indies and second vice-president of the Jamaica Intercollegiate Sports Association, Rashid was deputy head of delegation at the Kazan 2013 Summer Universiade after being team manager at the 2011 edition held in Shenzhen.

Currently in Britain on a special study tour with British Universities and Colleges Sport and Loughborough University, Hall will shortly head to Glasgow as team manager for Jamaica at the Games opening later this month on July 23.

After receiving the scholarship, established in 2012 to provide one deserving individual the chance to attend the programme who would otherwise not have been able to, Hall described feeling "as though a major hurdle had been cleared".

"Without the scholarship it would have been a real task to acquire the funds to attend," he added.

There are many noteworthy alumni among recent cohorts of the AISTS Masters course in Lausanne ©AISTS

Since 2003, AISTS has educated more than 300 sports managers from over 100 countries on its Masters course, with illustrious alumni including Australian Anne Gripper, best known for introducing the biological passport to cycling.

Based here, the programme seeks to embrace a "unique and multidisciplinary approach", integrating knowledge from the fields of technology, law, sociology, and medicine.

The majority of candidates go on to pursue careers within the sports world.

"The opportunity to learn from some of the leaders in the sport industry in an environment that represents the hub of international sport administration and a great mix of experienced students from across the world is what I'm looking forward to most," said Hall.

"The programme will give me the required real life experience and academic information to be able to manage sport at the highest level internationally and to contribute in a positive way to the development of sport in Jamaica."

AISTS Executive Director Claude Stricker claimed taht, from a record number of applications received from this year's scholarship, Hall stood out as the leading candidate.

"Rashid is an individual with clear leadership potential, " he said.