For the past 30 years or so western Jamaica’s track and field fans have been gearing up annually for the Western Relays which has been a calendar event on the Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association’s calendar for more than 20 years.

Now the event, originally called ‘Mini-Gibson’ then COMETS Relays has become such a staple of western life that even non-track fans are excited to go watch some of the best talents the country has to offer at any level from Primary/All Age through to the seniors.

For the past seven years at Catherine Hall and over 20 years prior to that at Cornwall College, thousands have been turning up on the second Saturday in February to enjoy one of the best meets in the country.

This Saturday, however, only the most die-hard fans and those who can afford to travel to the GC Foster Sports College in St Catherine will get to see what is expected to be a cracker of a meet, as continuing work on the Catherine Hall Sports Complex forced the organisers to find an alternate venue.

It is sad that western fans won’t get to see the likes of former World Record holder Asafa Powell, new Olympic 100m champions Shelly Fraser, Olympic 400m hurdles champion Melaine Walker or Olympic 400m silver medallist Shericka Williams.

A record number of teams have sent in entry forms and the action promises to be hot from the start to the finish.

However, while the two can’t be compared, western track and field fans won’t be denied top-quality action as for three days next week – Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, the crème of the crop of western high school track and field athlete will be in action in the Western Championships.

For the past several years, Western Champs has managed to recapture the attention of track and field fans with a series of outstanding athletes and performances.

Last year’s action was worth going miles to see and if the early season results are anything to go by, this year’s could be better.

Despite his undisputed quality, two time IAAF World champion Dexter Lee could be challenged in the 100m by William Knibb’s Jason Young and Albert Town’s Andrew Fisher, early in the season.

All the sprints are expected to be closely contested while new stars are expected to come to the fore.

With the absence of Mannings, no school from Westmoreland is expected to win either the boys or girls titles but several athletes from non-traditional track schools such as Godfrey Stewart High, Frome Technical, Petersfield and Grange Hill could make a difference as the sport continues to spread deep into the sugar cane belt.

The throwing events will not take second stage to track as Petersfield’s Cornelius McIntosh raised some eyebrows with a big 15.57m throw to win the Class 1 shot put at the STETHS Invitational two weeks ago and he will challenge Munro College’s dominance in this event this year.