1500m, 4x800m dropped from Kirkvine schedule

The organisers of the annual JAAA/PUMA/Fuller/Anderson Development Meet have dropped two events, the 1500 metres and 4x800 metres, from the meet's 2019 schedule.

This was announced by meet director Jerry Holness at the official launch of tomorrow's meet on Tuesday at the Golf View Hotel in Mandeville.

"Over the years, we have been having challenges with the meet being completed on time, and, of course, we are dealing with a situation where the majority of the athletes participating are youngsters. We want to finish on time and get the youngsters off the road (early). The 1500m, as you know, is very time consuming, also the 4x800m. We have not been getting enough entries in the 4x800m for the past three years, so the committee decided to give that a break for this year and see what happens in the future," Holness said.

This year's events are the 200m (all classes), 400m (all classes), 3000m for females, and the 5000m for males. The meet will begin with the 200m at 9 a.m.

Chairman of the organising committee Maurice Wilson said there were benefits to competing on the best grass track in the island at the Kirkvine Sports Club in Mandeville. Chief among them, according to Wilson, is the reduction of injury, especially in the early part of the season.

Wilson also announced the establishment of a two-year scholarship tenable at the G.C. Foster College in honour of the meet's founders, the late Charlie Fuller and Pat Anderson.

"We have also decided to provide a scholarship worth $150,000 to that athlete who is willing to continue the legacy of coaching and assisting in taking care of and preparing athletes, and the scholarship is tenable at the G.C. Foster College," Wilson said while announcing that the four honourees for this year are Reginald Reece (event starter), Dave Anderson (coach), the late Devon Clarke (an official who worked at the meet for many years), and the Jamaica Olympic Association.

Olive Fuller, wife of meet co-founder Fuller, was very pleased that the meet carries her husband's name.

"He had a passion for sports. It was first in his life. I felt second to it. I was very happy when the organisers decided to honour his name because he loved sports so much, especially track and field, " Mrs Fuller said.

The meet's sponsors are Golf View Hotel, Digicel, Kirkvine, Juici, National Commercial Bank, Windalco, Stride Vision, Trackalerts, Derrymon Trading, Fontana Pharmacy, and G.C. Foster.