Defending champions Vaz Prep will set the competitive pace for the 2010 prep school track and field season as they take to Mona Bowl, UWI, today for the 11th staging of the Covenant Christian Academy’s Over Distance Track Meet.

The champions will contend against last year’s runners-up Hydel Academy, together with 19 additional preparatory schools across 22 track and field events commencing at 9:00 am. Globe Insurance Company of Jamaica is among the event’s founding supporters and title sponsor of today’s meet for the sixth consecutive year.

The first meet on the preparatory schools’ sporting calendar, the Covenant-Globe Over-Distance Track Meet focuses on encouraging young athletes to “go over the distance” by raising the metre bar on standard track and field distances. Going over the distance for these young athletes means that Class One girls, for example, who would normally run 300m at the Inter-Prep Championships, will run 400m today.

The calibre of the meet’s athletes is testament to this training concept as records are broken each year and the meet’s appeal continues to grow.

Hot on the heels of Champs, and an excellent forerunner to the Inter-Prep Track & Field Championships, the Covenant-Globe Track Meet opens with 150m, 300m, 400m and 500m competitions, followed by long jump and the ever-popular relays in the afternoon.

The Covenant Christian Academy and Children’s Centre (CCACC) was established in 1987 by the Covenant Community Church. CCACC serves as an extension of the home and works in partnership with parents to train the whole child academically, physically, spiritually and socially.

Globe’s association with the CCA Meet for the entire 11 years of its running is integral to the event’s sustained growth; Globe joins associate sponsors Sports Gear Limited, Latin American Exporters Limited, JN Finance Limited, Jamaica National Building Society, the Tent Post, PediaSure, Xsomo and Jablum Jamaica in hosting today’s athletes, parents, coaches, volunteers and track enthusiasts.

The participating schools are Ardenne, Belair, Covenant Christian Academy, Emmanuel Christian Academy, Hydel, King’s Gate, Mavisville, Meadowbrook, Mona, Montego Bay, Mt St Joseph, Our Lady of the Angels, Poter Centre for Knowledge, Portmore Missionary, Stella Maris, Suthermere, St Andrew, Trafalgar Christian, Vaz, Waltham Education Centre, Wolmer’s.