The 34th annual Gibson Relays comes at a time where Jamaica is experiencing unprecedented success in the area of track and field.

For many years, the Gibson relays has been the foremost one-day relay carnival this side of the world.With top athletes from prep, primary and high schools as well as some of Jamaica’s best local stars, the meet has continued to offer a mouth-watering feast for the pallets of the purest track and field fans.

This year seems no different as the intensity of the machine that is Champs 100 has served to pump up its younger cousin. Having always been a precursor to Champs, Gibson Relays usually occurs about a month before the nation’s single greatest annual sporting event. Though independent of Champs, it, many years, gives a good representation of what might happen in one month’s time.

In the boys section this year, it might be difficult to do so, however, as top boys school Calabar High will not be present at this year’s meet. The reasons for their absence are not completely clear at this time but sources tell TEENage that it has to do with them using ineligible athletes at last year’s staging of the meet.

The absence of Calabar High means that fans will have to wait to see the highly touted Calabar High 4×100 m relay team. Insiders have placed this team as the team to beat at Champs with the likes of Travis Drummond and Ricardo Powell. Traditional powerhouses in the event, Kingston College and St Jago will also face problems with severely weakened sides and with the rebuilding efforts of St Georges College, the title could go to the sky blue and white clad boys from North Street.

The next championship event, the 4×400 metres looks set to go to an old face in Track and Field as Munro College, led by their captain Rolando Reid, are firm favourites. Another team that is rebuilding, the men from St Elizabeth are desperate to stamp their class over the field. Again the traditional teams will look to upset that dream as Kingston College and Jamaica College should be able to put up strong competition.

That fight will be magnified in the third Boys’ championship event, the 4×800 metres. Kingston College with Donahue Williams and Adrian Bonner leading the charge will face a powerful Jamaica College contingent which includes Waquar DaCosta and Andre Pickersgill.

The girls’ section will have an international flavour this year as some of the top athletes from the United States will be coming down to test their mettle. The eleven member squad is a bursting with talent which includes former World Youth and Junior representatives. The top schools in the girls section will once again battle it out in the three championship events. Holmwood, Manchester and Edwin Allen will only find trouble from the US contingent while ST Jago and Vere Technical will battle with the corporate area schools for the lesser spots.

The likes of Natoya Goule for Manchester, Gayon Evans and Amoy Blake for Edwin Allen and a hopefully fit Chris Ann Gordon form Holmwood should bring quality to the events.