The Inaugural staging of the Corporate Area Athletic Games (CAAG) will be held on Saturday, February 15th, 2014, and from the looks of things it may be the meet that changes the way development meets are held in Jamaica for High School athletes.
The Inaugural staging of the Corporate Area Athletic Games (CAAG) will be held on Saturday, February 15th, 2014, and from the looks of things it may be the meet that changes the way development meets are held in Jamaica for High School athletes.
The brainchild of the Anthrick Sports Management Group, CAAG will be the meet with a difference, as it will involve only schools based in the Corporate Area (Kingston and St. Andrew) and will take on a format similar to ‘Champs’. All the other development meets that are held to prepare the various high schools for Boys and Girls Championships feature a limited number of events. This forces coaches to run a number of athletes outside of their ‘pet’ events in order to give them race preparation.
The CAAG will give coaches the opportunity to place athletes in their preferred events and get a good gauge of where they are with just over six weeks to go before Champs. This makes the CAAG a must on the calendar for all schools in the corporate area.
Speaking exclusively with Yardie Sports, Ricky Martin,Chairman of the organizing committee for the games said, “There is quite a buzz building up around the game. The schools that have already confirmed are excited about the prospects of running against just the ‘town’ schools to see exactly where they are.”
The staging of these games also give the ‘non-traditional’ schools a chance to shine especially in the girls section as traditional superpowers such as Holmwood Technical, Edwin Allen, Manchester High and Vere Technical are all absent.
On the boys’ side of things, the CAAG could turn out to be a super treat for track and field enthusiasts, should the coaches of the top schools run their top athletes in the ‘pet’ events. All the best athletes at some stage this season, have already shown that fast times, far distances and high jumps can be expected between March 25-29th. To be given the prefect ‘champs preview’ on February 15th would certainly be worth the price of admission.
“What the Corporate Area Athletics Games brings to the table is something different,it fills a void that is created when other regions have their championships. They have it for the Eastern, the Western and for the Central schools, now the Corporate Area will have something special to look forward to, something they can call their own,” Martin continued.
The 100m Class 2 clash between Shauna Helps of Wolmer’s Girls and Rushelle Burton of St. Andrew High, both of whom have looked in great form so far this season, should set the stadium alight. The Class One Boys 100m will no doubt be as hot as any event on the track. At the Camperdown Classics, on Saturday February 8th, Michael Ohara of Calabar ran a stunning 10.39 seconds while Zharnel Hughes of Kingston College clocked an even more impressive 10.36 at the Milo Western Relays in Montego Bay.
More than thirty schools have already confirmed their participation with less than a week to go and included among them are, Kingston College, Calabar, Jamaica College, Camperdown, Excelsior, St. Andrew High, Campion College, Alpha, The Queens School, Immaculate Conception, Vauxhall, Penwood and Papine.
“We feel very good about what this meet has to offer both the participants and the spectators and we have already secured sponsorship for security through Atlas Security and hydration through Hi-Lyte. Unfortunately we still don’t have a title sponsor or a food sponsor so at this point we are reaching out to anyone who wants to come on board,” Martin said.
This inaugural staging of the CAAG should set the tone for what may just become one of the top events on the track and field calendar.
Photo: Ricky Martin – Chairman of the organizing committee CAAG
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