STARS ON SHOW
ANGELS, St Catherine — The 42nd staging of the Milo Western Relays at G C Foster Sports College in Angels, St Catherine, will highlight this weekend’s trio of track and field meets that will be held in close proximity.
The Camperdown Classic is set for National Stadium, while the King of the Rings event, a meet for throwers only, will be staged at Excelsior High School.
The Camperdown Classic will offer competition in age groups, Open for high schools, as well as clubs and institutions, along with relays and there will be individual events in the 100m, 400m, 800m, 1,500m and 400m hurdles, as well as long and high jumps.
In addition to the usual high-quality track and field expected at the Milo Western Relays, which start at 9:40 am, for the second-straight year and third time overall, 60-metre races featuring World Indoor and Olympic champions will add a new dimension to the meet that will see nearly 70 teams from prep and primary to high schools and clubs and institutions, taking part.
Meet Director Ray Harvey told the Jamaica Observer that despite the logistics of having to move the meet from Montego Bay for the second year, they were expecting another outstanding staging.
“Western Relays in Montego Bay has for decades been a part of the track and field landscape and we have got a lot of complaints, even from schools and clubs based in Kingston and other parts of the island about the meet being held outside of Montego Bay,” he said. “Nothing against G C Foster, who are gracious hosts, but for most the trip to Montego Bay was more than just for a track meet.”
Notwithstanding all that, Harvey, a former Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association president, said they were looking forward to “just another great day of track and field from the start to the end; we run on time and those who come here know what to expect”.
He said he was looking forward to some special 60m races that they were asked to accommodate. “We don’t get to see too many 60m races here and for us to be able to stage some with names like Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Asafa Powell will be a special treat, but people must come early if they are to see these special athletes in action.”
The 60m races — two for men and one for women — will be run at 9:40 am followed by the regular schedule that will include sprint hurdles for all classes and Open, 400m hurdles Open, 800m for both male and female, 1,500m for female and 3,000m for male; the relays to be contested are 4x100m, 4x200m, 4x400m, 4x800m, and the Sprint Medley Relay.
There will also be the long and high jumps Open for both genders.
National high school champions Kingston College and Edwin Allen High will headline the high schools’ category that sees the return of St Elizabeth Technical High School after a one-year absence; Holmwood Technical, Excelsior High, Manchester High, and Wolmer’s Girls.
The clashes between the star-studded MVP Track Club and the G C Foster-based Sprintec Track Club will highlight the institutions’ category that will also see Exed Community College, UTech, Mico University, and The University of the West Indies, Mona taking part.
The 60m races will also see World Championships long jump gold medallist Tajay Gayle taking part.
Fraser-Pryce, who won the World Indoors gold medal in 2014, will headline the women’s race that will also include Shauna Helps, Jodean Williams, Norwegian national Ezinne Okparaebo, Srabani Nanda of India, and Kedisha Dallas.
The first men’s race will see Powell, the silver medallist at the World Indoors in Portland, Oregon in 2016 and who competed last month at an indoors meet in Boston, along with Carter, who also won silver at the World Indoors in Turkey in 2012, Julian Forte, who has a personal best of 6.55 seconds, and Jamaican-born Austin Hamilton, who competes for Sweden.
World Under-20 long jump bronze medallist Wayne Pinnock will defend his title here today and will be seeking to break the record of 8.00m set in 2017 by Gayle when the meet was held in Montego Bay.
Ramone Bailey of MVP, Shawn-D Thompson of G C Foster, and Pinnock’s Kingston College teammate Shacquille Lowe will add depth to the long jump event.