CHAIRMAN and founder of the Douglas Forrest Invitational Track and Field Meet Brian Smith said that without sponsors the meet would not have been able to come this far as it celebrates its 10th staging.

“This has been an amazing journey. I remember when we hosted this event for the first time in 2005, and at the end of the day we only had two sponsors and bills to pay,” he said, addressing the launch at the Alhambra Inn yesterday.

“It was challenging then, but it is much better now, so I would like to thank all our sponsors,” he added.

The chairman went on to outline how the organising committee went about attracting sponsors to come on board. “Our first year, in 2005, we looked around and we saw that we needed some attractions, so we brought the world record holder at the time, Kevin Young, Justin Gatlin and Shawn Crawford to Jamaica to have them interact.”

This trend, he said, has been kept going on a year-to-year basis as they managed to bring in top Olympians such as John Carlos, Melvin ‘Mel’ Pender and Ato Boldon. This year their special guest will be former national midfielder and captain Ricardo ‘Bibi’ Gardner.

The chairman further went on to charge sponsors to keep the event going for years to come. “I place the remaining years of this meet in the hands of the sponsors, because it is important… it is very important. So sponsors, may peace be with you.”

Ian Forbes, representing longtime sponsors Sherwin Williams Limited, said that being a part of the meet has been a pleasure. “Sherwin Williams has been on board for the past 10 years and it has been our distinct pleasure to partner with the organising committee. It has always been a quality meet and continues to be, and this year we expect no less,” said the Jamaica College old boy.

Other longtime sponsors include Barco Caribbean Limited, MegaMart, Digicel, Cari-Med, Sterling Asset Management and Singer.

The Douglas Forrest Invitational, which is used as preparation and qualification for the ISSA Boys’ and Girls’ Athletic Championships, is set to take place next Saturday and will be headlined by defending champions Calabar, longtime rivals Kingston College and possibly teams from the Bahamas and Curaçao.

The development meet is set to last approximately nine-and-a-half hours and will see athletes taking part in events such as 200m, 400m hurdles, 800m, 1,500m, 3,000m, 5,000m, 4x400m and medley relays, high jump, long jump, triple jump, shot put and discus.