MONTEGO BAY, St James — Despite being forced to cut events from their schedule and go on without a long-time sponsor as well as being held behind closed doors, Western Relays will return to local track and field this Saturday at GC Foster Sports College in Angels, St Catherine.

The meet will start at 11:00 am with individual events and the relays set to start at 1:00 pm.

The meet that was also forced to move from its Montego Bay home at the Catherine Hall Sports Complex as the synthetic running track is not suitable to track meets, but organisers are promising “exciting competition from some of the best athletes the island have to offer”.

At yesterday’s media launch at the Deja Resort on the Jimmy Cliff Boulevard in Montego Bay, meet director Ray Harvey said, “This year’s 43rd staging of the Western Relays is different in several ways,” pointing out that long time sponsors Milo would not be involved and they had to make several changes to be compliant with COVID-19 protocols laid down by government agencies.

“Milo is not on board this year, [but] we have been able to find several new sponsors and we try to replace the funding we used to get from Milo. The COVID protocols require that we have a reduced number of competitors, and as a result, we had to cut the number of events we offer,” said Harvey.

Among the events that faced the axe are the 800m, 1,500m, 3,000, hurdles events, the 4x200m relays, the long and high jumps and all events involving prep and primary schools.

On offer are the 100m and 400m individuals races as well as the 4x100m, 4x400m and the 4x00m Open, the latter which was added only days ago due to requests from schools.

Harvey said other requirements had seen them “increase the times between races so that the sanitising and spacing requirements can be met and another of the conditions for meet approval from the ODPEM is that spectators are not allowed, this is disappointing, but we recognise the importance of safety first where COVID is concerned”.

He said his organisation is grateful for the sponsors who had stepped up to assist the meet, saying they were playing their parts in the development of the island’s track and field.

“Finding sponsors for sporting events is never easy, and in COVID times, it has become even more difficult,” he said.

He pointed out that Coca-Cola was returning, as they had been the title sponsors up to 1993 before the relationship ended when the soft drink company closed its base in Jamaica.

“Our sponsors who are making this meet possible are not those who only jump up and down and wave flags when Jamaicans win races, our sponsors are the ones who are prepared to make an investment in the development of persons who will become winners one day,” Harvey noted.

Meanwhile, long-time track and field official Leroy Cooke has been named patron of the meet, and in making the announcement, Harvey said he “was very instrumental in introducing electronic timing at the Western Relays in 1998 while we were still at Cornwall College and has been with us every year since”.