The first staging of the Ondirun Jamaica College 200 Metres Sprint Fest will be held this afternoon at the Richard Ashenheim Stadium on the school’s campus in St Andrew, starting at 2:30 pm.

The meet, which has attracted over 350 participants from some of the island’s top boys and girls’ schools, will also see a number of the country’s senior athletes competing.

Organiser Wayne Long said the meet is designed to give everyone who aspires to compete in the 200m this season a chance to compete in the event at the championships.

“The objective of this meet is to give the schools a chance to run all their 200 metres athletes at once because when they go to the other meets they only enter two people and three people and so, with this meet, a school can come and run any [number] of athletes that they want to,” Long said.

“The other objective is to show them that you can run a meet within a two to three hours span and you don’t have to spend your entire day at a track meet before your race comes up,” he added.

Long says respond to the meet has been tremendous.

“The entries have been excellent because we are just a little shy of the 400 mark, but we are good with what we have and we are hoping for an excellent execution of this meet on the day,” Long said.

“The feedback has been good…as we will have a number of senior athletes competing in the meet,” he added.

Long noted that he expects fireworks as some matchups have mouthwatering prospects.

“We are expecting some good performances from the athletes even though it is early season now, but as you know, the 200 metres generally starts early and so I think you are going to see some exciting races throughout,” he said.

— Robert Bailey