MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Meet organiser Maurice Westney has said everything is in place to ensure that today’s 31st staging of the High Mountain Coffee Road Race maintains its violent-free, family-oriented theme.

The road race, put on by Jamaica Standard Products, producers of the High Mountain Coffee brand since 1983, features a number of events, including the 5K run and walk, and the wheelchair race.

However, the highlight of the day is usually the 10K race, which “starts from the western end of Williamsfield, through neighbouring communities including Kendal, before coming to an end at Williamsfield’s north-eastern side”.

“As we speak,” said Westney, “we are on the grounds setting up tents and so forth.

“We have been on the route,” he added, “and there were some potholes, but we filled them out to ensure that we have a smooth route for the athletes to run on.”

Those athletes should include the defending male champion Andrew Brodeur of the Shore Athletics Club in the USA, veteran competitor Edmund Burke (a former two-time winner), and top local runners Rupert Green, Sean Pitter and Damion Bent.

And while Kelsey Maher, the defending female champion, will be absent, the 2011 winner Danielle Tauro, also of Shore Athletics, should be present to provide competition for Aretha Martin and Nickesha Williams.

The male and female 10K winners are each expected to pocket $30,000 of the $300,000 cash prizes that will be up for grabs.

Meanwhile, Westney also noted that, in terms of entries, this year could be bigger than last year.

“The entries have been coming in and so far it looks like we will surpass last year’s total,” Westney told the Jamaica Observer. “Putting what we have so far with what is to come tomorrow, we could have somewhere in the region of 700 or more entries.”

This should be good news for the Mandeville Regional Hospital, whose dialysis unit the organisers are hoping to raise some $1 million for, from this year’s festival. “Last year we were able to hand over to the Mandeville Hospital a total of $500,000 and this year our aim is to double that,” John O Minott of Jamaica Standard Products and chairman of the road race committee, told the media at the this year’s launch.

The memory of the late Charlie Fuller, a renowned track and field statistician and administrator who died last year, will be honoured with a minute’s silence.

This year’s sponsors include Lucozade, Power Services, Bullhead Water, Isartech Jamaica, Jamaica Producers and the Jamaica Observer.