Big challenges for 2019 Milo Relays

Western Bureau:

The 41st staging of the Milo Western Relays will be held at the G.C. Foster College in Angels, Spanish Town, on February 9, and meet director, Ray Harvey, is already bracing for big challenges ahead of and during the meet.

A Montego Bay Sports Complex track that is unfit for competition has forced the meet’s organisers to move to Spanish Town for the second time. The event was held at G.C. Foster in 2010 but it has grown much larger since then. Nine years ago the meet attracted 850 athletes but this year as many as 2000 from primary, prep and high schools as well as clubs and institutions ­including MVP, G.C. Foster College, Sprintec, University of Technology and University of the West Indies, are expected to turn up in Spanish Town.

Speaking at yesterday’s launch at the Holy Trinity Church Hall in Montego Bay Harvey said G.C. Foster College has never accommodated a meet of this size and, therefore, the organisers are working with the institution to put in structures and to work out the logistics.

“They have a lot of space there but we have to put systems in place to move athletes from the warm-up area to the competition area without confusion. At the Montego Bay Sports Complex, that was never a problem because they just go through a gate and they are right there ... “, Harvey said.

Harvey also expects gate ­receipts to be very low.

“Another major challenge (at G.C. Foster) is trying to collect some money. At the Montego Bay Sports Complex things are tight and all the patrons who come in, pay at the gates. This is a very important part of the funding of the meet. Here (at G.C. Foster) we have never been successful in collecting much at the gate. We are hoping we might be able to collect some this time around but it won’t replace what we usually collect in Montego Bay,” he said.

Harvey is also hoping the track in Montego Bay will be fixed by next year as he has ruled out any possibility of making a permanent move from Western Jamaica.

“I don’t even want to imagine that, honestly. It was a very difficult decision to move it this year. The choice was either to cancel the meet or to move it because the elite athletes were not coming to run on the track in Montego Bay,” Harvey said. “I hope that next year we will not be faced with this challenge again because that would be very, very, unfortunate. I think the meet would die if it’s not held in Western Jamaica," he concluded.