Synthetic track opened at Calabar
KINGSTON, Jamaica – A new synthetic 400m track was officially commissioned at the Red Hills Road-based Calabar High School on Friday.
Calabar High, which has won the ISSA Boys’ Athletic Championships for the past four years, will host their first event on the track with the inaugural McKenley/Wint Track and Field Classic on Saturday.
The track, which is the brainchild of Minister with responsibility for sport in the Office of the Prime Minister, Natalie Neita-Headley, is the first to be laid in a high school in Jamaica, and by extension the English speaking Caribbean.
Olympians Herb McKenley and Arthur Wint, for whom the Classic is named, were students at Calabar.
The historic landmark forms part of the $250-million high school sports infrastructure improvement programme, which will be carried out by the Sports Development Foundation (SDF) in 24 schools across Jamaica.
The track is said to have cost approximately $66 million.
Sherdon Cowan
