Stephen Smith, president of the County of Cornwall Athletics Association (COCAA), has promised “lots of quality” during today’s staging of the Western Championships at G C Foster Sports College in Angels, St Catherine, starting at 9:00 am.

Just under 900 athletes from 29 schools are set to compete at the event which will be completed in one day for the first time in decades as a result of issues caused by the passage of Hurricane Melissa last October.

The meet, which had been staged over three days up to 2018, was scaled down to two days until last year.

But organisers have opted for one day this year with all track events, except the 100m in all classes, to be run as timed-finals, that is the fastest after all the sections are run to be awarded medals and points.

Smith, who had expressed surprise at the numbers of schools which have submitted entries for the ISSA Athletics Championships qualifier, told the Jamaica Observer on Friday that some schools had only a handful of entries.

Belmont Academy, located in Bluefields, Westmoreland, near where the monster storm made landfall on October 28, will have one athlete competing, while Rhodes Hall in Hanover, he said, had entered “about three or four”.

Based on results from other meets, Smith said he was optimistic that high-quality performances will make up for the shortfall in quantity.

“The results that we have seen so far from the development meets tells us that we will have quality all the way through the meet, athletes from the west have been doing very well and in some instances they are leading their respective categories and we know what they can do,” he said.

Smith said he was expecting full fields, especially in the sprint events.

Neil Harrison, head coach of St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS), says despite significant issues, especially in his girls’ team, they will not go down “without a fight”.

He added: “Obviously, the hurricane affected us in the west, really significantly, some more than others.

“We get female students from all over western Jamaica but we dont have the facilities to board the females and for several reasons. We have lost quite a few of our females. In some cases parents are more focussed on rebuilding homes and lives after the hurricane.”

Despite the setbacks he said retaining both championships was still a target.

“Sometimes things are out of your control but we will not go down without a fight,” Harrison noted.

Rodrick Myles, the head coach at William Knibb Memorial High who led the boys’ section last year going into the relays, said while he cannot focus on “winning championships” after the disruption to their programme, promised they will give it their best.

“We are in every event and we will have some surprises and there are going to be some excellent performances,” Myles said.

One of the schools that will have a small representation but is expected to have a big impact is Holland High.

Holland’s team includes World Athletics Under-20 medallist Shanoya Douglas, who is entered in the sprint double, as well as Johan-Ramaldo Snythe, who is to face off against the Herbert Morrison pair of Tavaine Stewart and Coby Watson.

After dominating Classes Two and Three, Munro College’s Javontae Smith will turn his attention to the Class One throws, and while he will start favourite in the shot put, he should face a challenge in the discus throw against teammate Rajeem Street, who is the defending champion.

Cornwall College’s Zhi-Hew Whitter improved his personal best in the Class Two long jump to 6.82m during last weekend’s Clinicare Relays meet in Montego Bay. He will start favourite to win at G C Foster Sports College.