Boyce/Jefford launches eighth Track and Field Classic

By Treiston Joseph  

The eighth edition of the Boyce and Jefford Track and Field Classic was launched on Friday in Linden at the Chicken Bar. 2012 Olympian out of Uganda, Julius Mutekanga, will make an appearance at the Classic, set for next month in Linden.

The Ugandan will run in the Men’s 800m, which is also one of six international events at the championships.

At the press launch on Friday, Chairman of the Boyce and Jefford Committee, Colin Boyce, noted what the organisation is hoping to accomplish while talking up athletics in Linden.

“Linden over the years have had great athletes and we will not move this meet from Linden, but what we have been doing until we get a synthetic track hopefully in the near future is to introduce international competition incrementally so our athletes can match strides with B class athletes per say and see where they are at and where the need to go even though we know we have athletes that can compete for us on all levels,” Boyce noted.

Director of Sport, Christopher Jones, highlighted the importance of such an event in the Mining Town and also put the development of synthetic tracks squarely on the now broad shoulders of Minister of Education, Dr. Nicolette Henry.

“We know that Linden has been lacking a lot of resources, their youths have been starved of development, facilities and competition, but now we have a chance to right those wrongs of past years and this track and field classic is important in that cause and the Lindeners need to show that it is important to them as well. While we did commit to having a track here by 2018, I will refer all questions and matter relating to that to the Minister of Education at this time,” Jones noted.

In addition, Mayor of Linden, Carwyn Holland, indicated his full support to the organizers, while Technical Director of the event, Mark Scott, shared some of the logistics for the meet.

The event will take place on August 12 and 13 with 12 finals scheduled for August 12, while 24 finals are set for August 13. There will also be six international events; namely Male and Female 200m, Male and Female Long Jump, Male 800m and Female 1500m.

Race time is 13:00h on both days, with admission being $500 for children and $1,000 for adults.