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JC meet working to maintain pacesetter title

Published:Saturday | December 19, 2020 | 12:12 AMAkino Ming/Staff Reporter
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Kavian Kerr of St Jago High School executes his jump as he competes in the Class One Boys long jump event at the Purewater/Jamaica College/R Danny Williams Development meet held at Ashenheim Stadium in St Andrew on Saturday, January 4, 2020.
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Kavian Kerr of St Jago High School executes his jump as he competes in the Class One Boys long jump event at the Purewater/Jamaica College/R Danny Williams Development meet held at Ashenheim Stadium in St Andrew on Saturday, January 4, 2020.
FORBES
FORBES
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For almost 30 years, the Purewater/Jamaica College (JC)/R. Danny Williams Development Meet has established itself as the pacesetter on the local athletics calendar, as it is the first meet to start the new year.

And though the coronavirus pandemic has created more obstacles for the planning committee for the meet next month, Ian Forbes, one of the meet’s long-standing organisers, told The Gleaner that he and his colleagues are doing everything to ensure that JC’s home track meet continues to provide a platform for athletes and coaches to test their readiness for the season, fresh into the new year.

MORE CHALLENGES

“We are still at the planning stages,” Forbes said. “This year has more challenges, but we are committed to the cause. We have submitted some documents at the Ministry of Health [and Wellness] for approval, so we are waiting for that so that we can plan the programme around it.”

Forbes, who is in his third stint as vice-president of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA), says the planning committee is aware that changes to the programme will have to happen to facilitate the country’s COVID-19 regulations, including the all-island curfew.

“We will be looking at the numbers which will be allowed to us (by the Government) so that we can fit the programme around those numbers, to ensure that we will be able to finish (the meet) within a reasonable time to allow athletes and coaches to have enough time to travel back to their homes,” he said.

The meet, which is set for January 9 at Ashenheim Stadium, will be in its 28th year of staging.

“We will have to push it back to the ninth, because the first weekend in January is the second. Still, we are looking to have a great meet,” Forbes said.

“We know that we will have to work over the Christmas holiday to get everything ready, but we are working with the JAAA and ISSA to ensure that we are ready.”

The JAAA was granted approval by MOHW to have meets that follow its strict COVID-19 protocols, which contain social-distancing measures.

akino.ming@gleanerjm.com