The eighth staging of the Corporate Area Development Meet gets underway today with 21 finals set to be contested on day one of the two-day event.

The meet will begin at Stadium East at 8:30 am and continue tomorrow inside National Stadium starting at the same time.

Kingston College are defending champions for the boys’ section, while Excelsior High are the defending champions for the girls’ segment for a championship that features the best high schools in the Corporate Area, including Calabar High, Jamaica College, Wolmer’s Boys and Girls, Immaculate Conception, Camperdown High, among others.

So far, at least 21 schools have confirmed that they will be participating at the event.

This year’s meet will take on added significance as first- and second-place finishers will gain automatic entries into the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships set for April 27-May 1.

Ricky Martin of the meet organisers, Anthrick Sports Management, admitted that it has been difficult to secure sponsorship for the event.

“Generally, sponsorship dollars are really hard to come by and most of the times it is based on relationships you have with some companies and the companies that see it fit to align their brands to a specific event.

“This year has been very, very challenging. Sponsorship is a two-way street; once companies align, they would want to market their products to the athletes as well as the patrons, but because of the pandemic there are no patrons to market to and with the social distancing and the limit to the number of athletes inside the venue, it is also hard for the sponsors to even go into the village, based on the protocols,” he said.

“Despite those challenges we have been able to gain a level of sponsorship. We are still behind, way behind to even pay the bills, but we are hosting this event to make sure the kids that are leaving and are seeking scholarships abroad have a chance to perform,” Martin added.

He thanked those who had come on-board to ensure that the meet was held, especially the companies that have been in support of the event from day one.

“We want to thank Digicel and SportsMax who have come together so that they can show this event live to Jamaica, the diaspora and the entire Caribbean. People worldwide can log on to their app and view the event,” said Martin.

— Dwayne Richards