Mr. Ray Harvey, chairman of the organizing committee and co-founder of Western Relays introduced that the late Hubert Lawrence can be honoured at this 12 months’s staging of the meet on Saturday February 8 at GC Foster School.
Lawrence by no means missed a Western Relays meet over the last thirty-five years. He began to attend Western Relays when it was being held at Cornwall School and adopted it to the unfinished Catherine Corridor Stadium within the coronary heart of the town. He additionally attended the meet when it was first held at GC Foster School in 2009 and 2010, when the meet was compelled to relocate with the intention to entry an all-weather monitor as none was out there in Montego Bay on account of the truth that the stadium was being accomplished. The meet finally returned to Montego Bay however needed to return to GC Foster School in 2019 as a result of the monitor within the west is unsafe for athletes to make use of.
Over the various years of Lawrence’s attendance on the meet, he wrote extensively about it, the athletes’ performances, the significance of the monitor that was the cradle for a lot of athletes who symbolize Jamaica on the regional and worldwide levels. Moreover Lawrence all the time contributed an article to the occasion journal the place he explored many matters of his selection. He additionally contributed in different capacities similar to meet announcer and analysist.
His recommendations and proposals over time have contributed to the world class relay carnival that Western Relays has turn into. The sum whole of his worth to the meet goes far past these particular gadgets listed. He can be sorely missed however the legacy of his contribution lives on.
His ultimate article within the occasion journal titled ‘A Glimmer of Hope’ was in regards to the unavailability of Catherine all Stadium to stage monitor and discipline occasions. An excerpt from that article reads ‘The Relays and Western Champs are superb occasions when held on the Corridor, full of color and faculty satisfaction. That venue gave Western monitor and discipline a centre simply reached by these from northern parishes and southern parishes. Its return can’t come too quickly.’
This 12 months’s Western Relays can be its 46th staging. The occasion schedule will function the throws – discus and shot put for all courses for women and boys at the highschool degree for the second time after being introduce in 2024. The invitational 60M for golf equipment and establishments additionally can be on the schedule once more primarily based on request from the coaches on the senior degree.
The opposite occasions on the day, which is able to start at 10:00 am are relays – all courses for prep, main, excessive faculties and golf equipment and establishment, hurdles – all courses, discipline occasions to incorporate lengthy bounce, triple bounce and excessive bounce, dash races 100M, 400M and 800M, 3000M and the 1500M. The meet will begin with the 400M Hurdles this 12 months.
