A date swap between the Gibson Relays and the GC Foster Classic will see the prestigious Gibson Relays being shifted to the March 12 time slot, two weeks later than it was originally scheduled.
Ventley Brown, Athletics Director at the Angels, St Catherine-based GC Foster Sports College and chairman of the Organising Committee of the GC Foster Classic, confirmed to the Observer yesterday that they had taken a decision to swap dates with the Gibson Relays and would stage their meet on February 26 instead.
Delays in the start of the relaying of the all-weather track at the National Stadium had initially forced the organisers of the Gibson Relays to cancel the event and earlier this month, chairman of the Organising Committee of the Gibson Relays, Neville ‘Teddy’ McCook told the Observer the meet would be cancelled this year as the venue would not be ready in time.
General Manager of Independence Park Limited Major Desmon Brown announced last week, however, that the work on the stadium track could be completed by the 24th of February, two days ahead of the date of the meet, but even that time frame was not sufficient to the Gibson Relays organisers.
Ventley Brown told the Observer yesterday that there had been discussions between both the Gibson Relays and GC Foster groups and the decision to swap dates “was a mutual one”.
He said, “Based on the situation at the National Stadium, it became obvious the work would not be completed in time and in the interest of track and field, we could not stand by and see the cancellation of the Gibson Relays”.
Efforts to contact McCook between Thursday and yesterday were futile.
The decision to swap the dates was also conveyed to the Gibson Relays Organising Committee and it was said both events could “suffer some losses” in the changes of dates.
Both meets had invited overseas athletes to the event and both, Brown said, would now have to go back to them and see how best they could restructure their schedules to fit into the dates of the meets now.
There is one major plus for the GC Foster Classic now, as it will now be a qualifier for ISSA National Boys and Girls Championships to be held in late March.
At the previous dates, the deadlines for entries to “Champs would have passed and they would have had to go to the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) and beg for the results to be considered”.
With the meet now set for late February, Brown says “this makes our meet a lot more attractive and marketable to the high schools”.
Source: JA.Observer
