MoHW pulls plug on meets
KINGSTON, Jamaica — The resumption of the track and field season was pushed back by at least two weeks after two meets set for this Saturday were not able to get approval from the Ministry of Health and Wellness to go ahead.
The 28th staging of the Jamaica College Purewater/R Danny Williams Track & Field Development Meet and the 4th Ted Dwyer Classics hosted by EXED Community College were scheduled for Saturday, but organisers had to pull the plug yesterday as they failed to get the go-ahead from the health authorities.
The government had put in place restrictions on the number of people who were allowed to gather at any one time at a maximum of 15, and that would have ruled out the staging of events of this kind.
As a result, three other meets will also either have to be rescheduled or cancelled — the JAAA/Puma Development meet at Kirkvine, Manchester; the Douglas Forrest Invitational at GC Foster; and the Manchester High/Charlie Fuller Field events meet.
While the organisers of the Ted Dwyer Classics have announced a new date of their event — Friday, January 22nd — there are no new dates for the Jamaica College, meet with the organisers saying in a release, “we plan to host the event subject to identifying a suitable date on the JAAA calendar”.
The track season got underway last month with the staging of the Tyser Mills Classic at Calabar High and was expected to resume following the Christmas break with both meets this weekend.
A release from the organisers of the JC/Purewater/R Danny Williams Track & Field Development Meet said the event had “been postponed due to non approval by the Ministry of Health at this time,” while the Ted Dwyer Classics organisers said, “The Ministry of Health and Wellness advised us today (Jan 7th) that they are unable at this time to issue a permit for the successful staging of the 4th Ted Dwyer Classics hosted by EXED Community College, which was planned for this Saturday.”
The release continued, “As a result, we have postponed the meet until Friday, January 22nd. We recognise that many will be disappointed but we want to encourage you to observe all the protocols for hand hygiene, mask wearing and social distancing.”
Paul A Reid
