The success of the 2009 Burger King/Jamdammers Grand Prix Series which ended last Sunday with Kemoy Campbell and Stacy Bell being crowned overall champions, has left the organisers considering the introduction of more road races in other parishes next season.

This year’s series was staged in the parishes of St James, St Elizabeth, Clarendon, and St Catherine and Kingston between September 13 and November 15.

Race director Alfred Francis told the Observer the participation in rural parishes has been especially encouraging.

“The series is just fantastic and the enthusiasm that you see on the ground is just overwhelming because last year was the first (time) we took the race to different parishes.

“We had five races in five different parishes and the NHF Holland Bambo 6K remains the venue with the largest participation in the whole series,” he said, noting that the overall turnout in this year’s series was significantly improved compared to previous years.

“This year we averaged approximately 360 (athletes) per event in all five races, coming from a low of 224 to a high of 492 finishers in the event,” Francis disclosed.

National Junior 1,500m record-holder Campbell of Bellefield High dominated the male section once again with five wins to finish with 50 points ahead of Kirk Brown (42) and Shawn Pitter (39).

The overall female section went to Bell of GC Foster College, who amassed 45 points – seven more than teammate Twishana Williams (38), followed by Manchester High’s Natoya Goule (36).

“What’s happening is that we have a lot of schools who cannot afford to come to Kingston when we have the races in the Corporate Area, so having taken it in other parishes, it’s really fantastic and we hope next year to expand what we do in the realms of having races in more parishes,” Francis reasoned.

Quizzed as to whether the Burger King/Jamdammers Grand Prix Series would be increased from five races, Francis replied: “Maybe not because some of the races might be done outside of the series because the window from September to the Reggae Marathon might be too crunched if we try to do more in that (time), so we have to look outside of that period to do races in other parishes.”

In the meantime, Holmwood Technical and Edwin Allen were crowned male and female high school champions, respectively.