WESTERN BUREAU
AS INCONCEIVABLE AS it might sound, there might not be a Milo Western Relays next year unless the challenging conditions at the unfinished Catherine Hall Stadium, in Montego Bay, are improved and made much more athlete/spectator friendly.
This situation comes against the background of a recent statement by Milo executive Kenneth Dodd, who has indicated that his company, which has been sponsoring the one-day championship for the past 12 years, was no longer willing to risk its good name on an event, which has been serving up nightmarish conditions for spectators and athletes alike.
While I would be deeply disappointed if the one-day championship, which has been staged every year for the past 28 years, should come to an abrupt end, I can understand Milo's position. While the relays remain a reservoir for high quality performances, no reputable company would want to continue risking its good name on a product with so much potential for embarrassment.
MAJOR MIRACLE
In addition to the inconvenience of being forced to stand out in the sun all day because of the absence of spectator stands, the situation is further compounded by the absence of bathrooms and changing rooms. In fact, it must be a major miracle that our female athletes, who are basically faced with the choice of either changing out in the open or behind clumps of bushes, keep coming back year after year.
I am sure if the organisers had the resources to create spectator stands and changing rooms those would have been addressed long ago as no one could seriously question their commitment to the popular annual championship, which is now one of the premier events on the local athletics calendar.
However, the Government, which is supposed to be seeing about the completion of the facility, which it started almost a decade ago with funding secured through a government to government deal with Venezuela, has seemingly lost its way. In fact, at present, optimism has completely disappeared and there is now a general feeling that Montego Bay has been taken for a ride once again.
SHATTERED
When one considers the quality of the performances that were seen at Catherine Hall last Saturday when all of 14 records were shattered and some of the best times ever recorded locally, it is indeed shame that next year there might not be a 29th staging of what has been such a vibrant and important even.
I find it particularly distressing that a government that has made a hobby out of exploiting the successes of our outstanding athletes could stand by and allow such a most unfortunate situation to be happening at this time.
While I am delighted when government erects statues to immortalise the enviable achievements of outstanding athletes such as Merlene Ottey, I still would want to question what role they plan to play in the development of our future track stars. It can't be that they are only concerned with the finished product because that would be counter productive.
In an era when the major track and field powers are exposing their athletes to the best possible conditions in a bid to give them a competitive edge going into major championships, it is a shame that outside of the National Stadium, there is no other facility in Jamaica offering the type of conditions that our athletes will encounter on the international circuit.
With Prime Minister PJ Patterson bowing out of office without fixing what has been a most pressing concern in his own backyard at the Catherine Hall Stadium, I am just hoping and praying that his successor will be kinder to the sporting fraternity here in the west. If Milo has been so kind to our athletics over the years, it must be time for those who have been collecting our taxes to step up to the plate.
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