MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Meet director of the recent High Mountain Coffee Road race festival Maurice Westney has hailed it as a great success.

“I thought we had an excellent meet overall,” Westney told Observer Central.

Westney was “very pleased” with what he described as the high level of participation. There were 650 participants “about a 200 increase over last year,” he said.

He also thought the level of organisation has improved with every passing year. “We have been at this for a long time, so you getting great consistency with people getting it correct most of the time — they know exactly what to do without having to be told,” Westney said.

Americans Andrew Brodeur and Danielle Tauro won the male and female categories of the feature event, the 10K.

The annual festival, which pulls a large crowd and numerous vendors to Williamsfield, is among the features of Manchester ‘s events calendar.

A major beneficiary of this year’s proceeds is the renal unit of the Mandeville Regional Hospital

Sponsors for this year’s event included Lucozade Sports, Power Services Company Ltd, the Jamaica Observer, CVM TV, Power 106FM, Irie FM, Jamaica Drip Irrigation, Mitchell Elliott & Associates, KLAS Sports Radio, Fence Masters, The Mandeville Hotel, Bulhead Mountain Spring Water, Sanco’s Trucking, 20twenty Promotions & Events.