Tweet
'Champs' alert! $45m for 'best-ever' schools track & field meet
By Howard Walker Observer senior reporter walkerh@jamaicaobserver.com
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Two-hundred-and-sixteen (216) schools will vie for top honours at this year's staging of the 102nd ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls Athletics Championships set for March 28 to 31 at the National Stadium.
'Champs', as it is popularly called, is one of the most anticipated sporting events and will this year be sponsored to the tune of $45 million with hefty injections from title sponsor GraceKennedy ($25.7m), LIME ($7m), CVM TV ($7m) and Puma ($4.4m).
GraceKennedy's chief executive officer Don Wehby (right) hands over the symbolic cheque for $25.7 million to ISSA president Dr Walton Small (left) and Colleen Montague at yesterday’s launch of the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships at the Terra Nova Hotel yesterday. (Photo: Karl McLarty)
1/1 
This year's event -- already a media event with interests from Britain's BBC, America's NBC, plus other media outlets from Japan, France and Switzerland -- is expected to be the most spectacular and entertaining one of all.
Jamaica College and Holmwood Technical are the defending boys and girls champion, respectively, but they will be hard-pressed to retain their titles, with Kingston College and Edwin Allen highly favoured to dethrone them.
Colleen Montague, principal of Wolmer's Girls and chairperson of 'Champs', said the event is a momentous one as it coincides with the 50th anniversary of Jamaica's Independence.
"This historic event will hold even more significance this year as we celebrate 50 years as an independent nation. We want to make this year's Boys and Girls Championships one of the best yet and we eagerly anticipate the support of track and field fans all across the region," said Montague at yesterday's launch at the Terra Nova Hotel.
She continued: "The plans for this staging will surpass anything we have done before. In particular, we are paying attention to the technical, security and entertainment as well as more convenient ticketing for patrons."
Don Wehby, GraceKennedy's group executive officer, said: "when it comes to Jamaicans, there are three things you just don't mess with -- our food, our family and our sports; the three are near and dear to our hearts."
"Having said that, when it comes to sports, there is nothing to us like the Olympics, which we have to wait for every four years to watch our own athletes compete and conquer the best in the world... thankfully, however, there is one meet that we don't have to wait four years for that ignites a frenzy and flurry of excitement in our island and that is the Boys' and Girls' Athletic Championships," said Wehby, a former St George's College student.
Telecommunication powerhouse LIME, which has pumped $20m into the event since 2010, claims it's money well spent. Stephen Miller said it is money well spent.
"This investment has reaped tremendous returns, particularly among our young people who have continued to display what can only be described as genius on the tracks," said Stephen Miller, LIME's sponsorship manager.
Puma, through its local representative Alfred Francis, said its support for Jamaicans has provided many opportunities for aspiring track and field athletes working hard within school programmes.
"The grassroots initiatives that we financially support in Jamaica in the high school system are largely unknown, but Puma is happy to facilitate this exciting event and support Jamaica's young athletes as they showcase their talent and style to the world," Francis added.
CVM TV will again air the four days of the prestigious championships to its local television audience, while cable network SportsMax will beam the event to 24 other Caribbean countries.
For the second consecutive year, fans from anywhere in the world will be able to watch online via SportsMax, who will be providing live streaming on the Internet free of cost.
Last year, it is reported that SportsMax's live Internet streaming had nearly five million page views and 53,319 total unique viewers from 127 countries, according to Google Analytics and LiveStream.com Analytics.
Among the top five countries recording the highest percentage hits were: the United States of America, Jamaica, Canada, the United Kingdom and Trinidad and Tobago.
SportsMax exclusively holds the International TV and Internet licensing for the championships via a deal inked with ISSA in 2011 and fans in the USA can also tune in to SportsMax's sister station, CEEN.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sport...#ixzz1mSl8zugP
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Two-hundred-and-sixteen (216) schools will vie for top honours at this year's staging of the 102nd ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls Athletics Championships set for March 28 to 31 at the National Stadium.
'Champs', as it is popularly called, is one of the most anticipated sporting events and will this year be sponsored to the tune of $45 million with hefty injections from title sponsor GraceKennedy ($25.7m), LIME ($7m), CVM TV ($7m) and Puma ($4.4m).
GraceKennedy's chief executive officer Don Wehby (right) hands over the symbolic cheque for $25.7 million to ISSA president Dr Walton Small (left) and Colleen Montague at yesterday’s launch of the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships at the Terra Nova Hotel yesterday. (Photo: Karl McLarty) 1/1 This year's event -- already a media event with interests from Britain's BBC, America's NBC, plus other media outlets from Japan, France and Switzerland -- is expected to be the most spectacular and entertaining one of all.
Jamaica College and Holmwood Technical are the defending boys and girls champion, respectively, but they will be hard-pressed to retain their titles, with Kingston College and Edwin Allen highly favoured to dethrone them.
Colleen Montague, principal of Wolmer's Girls and chairperson of 'Champs', said the event is a momentous one as it coincides with the 50th anniversary of Jamaica's Independence.
"This historic event will hold even more significance this year as we celebrate 50 years as an independent nation. We want to make this year's Boys and Girls Championships one of the best yet and we eagerly anticipate the support of track and field fans all across the region," said Montague at yesterday's launch at the Terra Nova Hotel.
She continued: "The plans for this staging will surpass anything we have done before. In particular, we are paying attention to the technical, security and entertainment as well as more convenient ticketing for patrons."
Don Wehby, GraceKennedy's group executive officer, said: "when it comes to Jamaicans, there are three things you just don't mess with -- our food, our family and our sports; the three are near and dear to our hearts."
"Having said that, when it comes to sports, there is nothing to us like the Olympics, which we have to wait for every four years to watch our own athletes compete and conquer the best in the world... thankfully, however, there is one meet that we don't have to wait four years for that ignites a frenzy and flurry of excitement in our island and that is the Boys' and Girls' Athletic Championships," said Wehby, a former St George's College student.
Telecommunication powerhouse LIME, which has pumped $20m into the event since 2010, claims it's money well spent. Stephen Miller said it is money well spent.
"This investment has reaped tremendous returns, particularly among our young people who have continued to display what can only be described as genius on the tracks," said Stephen Miller, LIME's sponsorship manager.
Puma, through its local representative Alfred Francis, said its support for Jamaicans has provided many opportunities for aspiring track and field athletes working hard within school programmes.
"The grassroots initiatives that we financially support in Jamaica in the high school system are largely unknown, but Puma is happy to facilitate this exciting event and support Jamaica's young athletes as they showcase their talent and style to the world," Francis added.
CVM TV will again air the four days of the prestigious championships to its local television audience, while cable network SportsMax will beam the event to 24 other Caribbean countries.
For the second consecutive year, fans from anywhere in the world will be able to watch online via SportsMax, who will be providing live streaming on the Internet free of cost.
Last year, it is reported that SportsMax's live Internet streaming had nearly five million page views and 53,319 total unique viewers from 127 countries, according to Google Analytics and LiveStream.com Analytics.
Among the top five countries recording the highest percentage hits were: the United States of America, Jamaica, Canada, the United Kingdom and Trinidad and Tobago.
SportsMax exclusively holds the International TV and Internet licensing for the championships via a deal inked with ISSA in 2011 and fans in the USA can also tune in to SportsMax's sister station, CEEN.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sport...#ixzz1mSl8zugP
TWITTER
FACEBOOK
DELICIOUS
DIGG
STUMBLE
REDDIT
Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 
05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015
) I gwine go through the forum an' pull out all di foolishness u eva write an' post it in one (loooooooooooooooooonnnnnnngggggggggggg) post. There will be a special chapter on you and X!! 
Comment