WHILE many marvelled at the massive turnout at the 2010 edition of the Jamaica International Invitational track and field meet which was the highest in its seven-year history, North America, Central America, and Caribbean Area Athletics Association (NACAC) president Neville McCook recalls the popularity of the meet’s predecessor, the Norman Manley Games.

That event was also held at the National Stadium during the 1970s and McCook, who was the meet director, said the calibre of athletes and the interest of those who came to compete was top class.

“This (Norman Manley Games) preceded what is now known as the Golden League and Diamond League,” he told the Observer.

“We were having those meets in Jamaica long before those events took place… they were well patronised.”

He recalled that the meet would be held on Friday night and that “by Saturday afternoon it was on the ABC Wide World of Sports on television in the United States because they used to come here and film it”.

A world record was also set at the National Stadium in May 1975 when Filbert Bayi of Tanzania beat the 1968 Mexico City Olympics silver medallist Jim Ryun to win the men’s One Mile in 3:51.0.

“So for a very long time the meet was successful,” McCook reiterated.

There was a capacity crowd at the National Stadium for the meet on May 1. The event was held on a Friday in its first year in 2004, but has subsequently been held on Saturday in an effort to attract a larger crowd.

“Believe me, we used to have those crowds. We had the Freedom Games when the Manley Games went out and all these Games used to attract tremendous participation because of the level of athletes that we had participating,” McCook reflected.

He added that the Norman Manley Games’ status as the first major outdoor event on the world athletics calendar at the time also helped heighten its profile.

“So all the top athletes were desirous of getting a chance to come out and participate to see exactly where they were, so we had a lot of the top athletes coming to participate,” he said.

The prizes for the winning athletes was interesting.

“What we had was for them to stay on for a couple days extra at some of the major hotels in Jamaica and they were extremely happy and satisfied with this,” McCook said.

Though he wasn’t quite certain of the reason, McCook said the Norman Manley Games ended at the turn of the decade in 1980.

While the JII has had fluctuating spectatorship in the last seven years, McCook gave a reason for the enormous crowd on hand this year.

“I think the information this time (was better); the advertisements were well splashed around and the title sponsors Jamaica National got involved and really promoted the event,” he said.