Safety first

President of the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) Keith Wellington said his organisation will be very vigilant in enforcing COVID-19 protocols at this year’s ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships.

Wellington said despite Government’s announcement last week that they have rescinded the Disaster Risk Management Act (DRMA) due to the decline in the virus in Jamaica and have withdrawn most COVID-19 measures, his organisation will not be taking any chances and therefore patrons attending the event will have to follow the protocols that have been set out.

“Specifically, we will continue to encourage the various methods of sanitisation of equipment and individuals, handwashing, mask wearing, and physical distancing where possible,” said Wellington during yesterday’s media launch of the championships at the National Stadium.

“COVID-19 has not disappeared with the withdrawal of the DRMA ... and we are not going to just wait until April to educate the public about what the expectations will be from us,” he said.

A maximum of 20,000 patrons per day, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, will be allowed to attend this year’s staging which will be held from April 5-9 at the National Stadium.

Three thousand five hundred grandstand tickets will be available while 16,500 bleachers tickets will be allotted for the competition.

“Obviously, we are happy to have fans back, 20,000 is a significant number and it comes with an awesome set of responsibilities in terms of ensuring that the patrons are going to be safe in the environment,” Wellington said.

Don Wehby, chief executive officer of title sponsor GraceKennedy, said they are very delighted to have fans back for the championships and they are looking forward to a pulsating five days of exciting action at the championships.

“I think that it is going to be very exciting due to the fact that the crowd is going to be here,” said Wehby.

“I understand that is going to be about 20,000 people, I recall that last year without the crowd it was exciting and with the crowd now it is going to be very exciting,” he said

Wehby said the winners of the boys’ and girls’ 100m events across all classes will receive $100,000 while $100,000 will also go to their respective schools. He also noted that the winners in all classes of the 4x100m will receive $100,000 and $100,000 will also go to the winning schools as well.

Tickets for the championships will be available from today starting at midday. Under a partnership with First Global Bank, all bleachers tickets along with 1,000 grandstand tickets for each day and 500 season tickets will be available online at www.tickets.issasports.com.

Entrance fees for the grandstand are $1,000 for Tuesday, $2,500 on Wednesday and Thursday, $4,500 for Friday and $7,500 for Saturday’s final day.

Bleachers tickets will cost $500 on Wednesday, $1,000 on Thursday, $1,500 on Friday and $2,500 on Saturday.

Premium season tickets which include the finish line will cost $23,000 while regular season tickets will go for $20,000.