SportsMax, the Caribbean’s premier sports broadcaster, announced yesterday that it has signed a five-year exclusive broadcast rights agreement with the Trinidad and Tobago Secondary School Track and Field Association.

The agreement, which covers the period 2017 through to 2021, will see SportsMax transforming the events into a spectacle for the enjoyment of athletes and fans alike with a full entertainment package scheduled for each leg.

The secondary school track and field season features 60 schools with more than 5,000 participating athletes annually.

SportsMax‘s coverage of the 2016-2017 season will race off in October 2016 with the Cross Country and Health Fair, followed by the annual 5K Road Race in November 2016.

In addition, for each season, from January 2017 through to March 2017, SportsMax will feature highlights of the Relay Festival, the eight zonal qualifiers and will close off in April 2017 with a live production and broadcast of the National Championships, which will be aired for the first time across households in SportsMax‘s 25 Caribbean markets as well as in the USA and Canada via its sister channel, CEEN TV in 2017.

Trinidad and Tobago Secondary Schools Track and Field Association President Philip Allard said the partnership with SportsMax is a positive move in further developing the country’s athletics programme.

“Trinidad and Tobago has a wealth of talent and we wanted to highlight this on an international scale, and now through this partnership with SportsMax, we will be able to do this while preparing the athletes for the world’s stage,” he said.

Assistant vice-president of Marketing at SportsMax, Tanya Lee, agrees that the immense talent of Trinidad’s secondary school athletes should be shown on a more global scale.

“Trinidad & Tobago has over the years produced some of the world’s most elite track and field stars and

SportsMax wants to shine the spotlight on the next Ato Boldon, Richard Thompson, Keshorn Walcott or Kelly-Ann Baptiste, who all got their starts in these championships at the secondary school level. We continue to bring the best from the region to sport fans across the Caribbean and the diaspora in North America,” she said.

SportsMax currently has broadcast rights to a plethora of Caribbean youth and community sporting events including the schoolboy football programme from Trinidad and Jamaica, as well as Digicel Grand Prix and the Red Stripe Premier League from Jamaica, with even more exciting Caribbean productions in the works.