Track and field in the west is back – Grant

LAST MONTH, Jamaica saw 16 track and field development meets staged across the island. Pushing the number up were two meets held in Montego Bay after a dearth of activity in the Second City.

Among those who welcomed the development is Claude Grant, coach at Herbert Morrison Technical High School.

“It means that track is back in Jamaica itself. What people must understand is that COVID has done a lot of damage to the system and therefore the whole sporting arena was just off. The situation, too, with the track in Montego Bay, once we have meets in our area, we don’t have to travel, and it’s an issue,” Grant said.

He was reflecting on the huge cost faced by western teams to travel to the Corporate Area to get competition practice.

January saw the revival of the First Chance Meet at Cornwall College on the fifth and the introduction of a new meet, the Run for the Republic at Herbert Morrison by the Montego Bay Comets, the club that launched the Western Relays more than 40 years ago. Both were welcomed as they provided competition for western student-athletes without the cost of travelling to Kingston.

Still, Grant longs for the restoration of the synthetic track at the Catherine Hall Sports Complex.

MISSING OUT ON TALENT

“I think that the powers-that-be and the stakeholders, they need to just really look at it in terms of bringing back track to Jamaica. Track in Kingston is not Jamaica. It is part of it, and if we can’t pool our talent from all corners of this island, it means we are going to lose out on talents that are out there.”

He believes that the Catherine Hall restoration is the next step.

“Western competition is going to be very, very strong. The only negative thing you’re going to have in it is that it’s going to be on the grass, and in comparison to the Eastern Champs, Central Champs or the Corporate Champs, then we’re not going to look so shiny,” he submitted.

He says the west has held its own.

“When the western schools come to Kingston, normally we come to Kingston, it doesn’t matter which school from the west that does well, we always do well against the Kingston schools,” he said.

In 2023, St Elizabeth Technical High School’s boys finished fifth and girls ninth at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships with Maggotty High School and Cornwall College ninth and 10th in the boys’ points standing while Mount Alvernia High were 10th among the girls.

In 2022, STETHS and Herbert Morrison placed sixth and ninth among the boys.

Grant concluded that the return to staging development meets in the west was positive.

“It means that we are interested, and if we weren’t interested, then it would not have been there. It’s just that we need the surface.”