In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the 110th staging of the
ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls Athletics Championships, popularly called Champs , that will be held at National Stadium from May 11-15 will have a massive 65 per cent cut in participants than previous years.
This was disclosed by the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) during a virtual media launch of the 2021 staging.
The launch, which was facilitated on the Zoom platform, three weeks after the government had given ISSA the approval to stage the five-day spectacle without spectators.
Champs organising committee chairman Richard Thompson said that only 970 athletes will be eligible to compete this year, a massive reduction from just under 3000 over the years. “We have entered 68 male teams totalling 506 athletes, 61 female teams totalling 464 athletes. Total athletes will be 970 across 80 schools,” said Thompson.
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The government has given the
Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)
the approval to stage the 2021
Boys and Girls Athletics Championships.
The five-day spectacle which attracts tens of thousands of spectators, many from overseas, will be held without spectators.
ISSA president Keith Wellington told
Loop Sports that the go-ahead was received today.
“It means that we can go ahead and plan to stage Champs,” said Wellington.
The championship, which is popularly called Champs, will take place from May 11-15 at the National Stadium in Kingston.
The annual championships was cancelled last year amidst the global coronavirus, COVID-19, outbreak.
While the championships has not been held for various reasons in the past, last season marked the first time in the 111-year history of the event (Boys Champs started in 1910) that it has been cancelled because of public health concerns.