WITH fewer than two weeks to go before the start to the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships (Champs), organisers of JW SpeedFest say they are expecting some outstanding performances at today’s meet which will be held at the National Stadium.

The meet is scheduled to begin at 1:00 pm.

Events down to be contested are the 100m, 200m, 400m, 4x100m and 4x400m.

Double sprint Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, along with Oblique Seville and Tajay Gaye, are down to compete at today’s meet.

Bruce James, the competition’s director, said the meet presents an excellent opportunity for the high school athletes to prove to their coaches that they deserve a spot on their teams to compete at Champs this year.

“It’s the final development meet before Boys’ and Girls’ Championships and so it is the last opportunity for high schools athletes to prove themselves to their schools and hopefully get selected to represent at the [Champs],” said James.

“It is going to be very exciting because a lot of the athletes are not going to be competing against athletes from other schools; they are quite often competing against athletes from their schools, saying to their coaches and managers that they should be the ones selected to represent their schools at Champs,” he added.

James pointed out that all the systems are in place for a very successful staging of the event, which features some of the best meet officials in the world. He added that they have also received tremendous support from corporate Jamaica for the championships.

“Everything is in place. Our sponsors have come on board strongly — especially Wisnyco with the brand WATA and Powerade, and they have given us tremendous support — and that is going to assist in making the meet go well,” he said.

“We also have some of the best officials, and so the officiating is going to be top-class and the organisation is looking really good and so we are very excited about it,” James ended.