KINGSTON, Jamaica — After two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the most important meets on the local track and field calendar, the GC Foster Classic, returned on Saturday.

Athletics Director, Chester McCarthy, said he was happy to see the return of the College’s flagship event as it is important to their “mission to participate and contribute to the development of sport in Jamaica.”

“It was very, very, important to us that we were able to successfully launch this two-year renewal of the GC Foster Classic,” McCarthy said. “2020 was a bad year for us because we had everything in place, it was going to be our biggest and best GC Foster Classic ever and we were cancelled two days before. In 2021 we were not in a financial position to put on a Classic.”

“This year we got the help of many sponsors, the SDF, the JOA, Jambisco, Wisynco, the SDC…others also contributed to us holding a successful GC Foster Classic 2022. So, it was in fact very special to us,” he added, as he heaped praises on those responsible for getting the meet back on track.

While most of the events held since the return of track and field to the island in force in 2021, have been centred around high school and senior track and field, the GC Foster Classic was able to provide primary school athletes a chance to participate once again.

“We felt really special about having that 4x100m relay for the primary schools and they enjoyed it immensely, that was really, really, special,” McCarthy shared, also commending the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) for “leading from the front in terms of how we could safely restart sport and they were a big part of this GC Foster Classic 2022. There are bigger and better things to come.”

A number of senior athletes put in good performances at the event while many high school athletes were able to fine tune their preparations for the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls Athletics Championships which are on next month.