Nervous wait for Gibson organisers

André Lowe, Senior Staff Reporter

Organisers of the Gibson Relays are awaiting word from Minister of Sport Olivia 'Babsy' Grange before making a final decision on the fate of the high-profile relay carnival, which now faces cancellation.

The 2011 renewal of the meet, which has been staged on 34 occasions, has been thrown into limbo due to a delay in the delivery of the equipment which will be used to carry out repair work to the track at the National Stadium, the long-time venue for the meet.

According to chief organiser Neville 'Teddy' McCook, the 15 members of the organising committee had unanimously voted for a cancellation of the meet at an emergency meeting on Wednesday night, but later arrived at a consensus to pursue further discussions with Grange, who was reportedly out of town yesterday.

"The committee unanimously voted for a cancellation (of the meet) but out of respect to the sports minister, who three weeks ago assured that the track would be ready, we feel that we should have a meeting with her and give her a chance to tell us the situation in her own words," McCook said yesterday.

McCook reiterated his committee's aversion to seeking a postponement as this will definitely affect other meets on the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association calendar.

"It has always been a cancellation because we have never felt comfortable in asking anyone to move their event, we don't feel we should impose our meet on anyone else's date," McCook said.

Hoping for solution

McCook, 71, who also serves as president of the North America, Central America and Caribbean Athletics Association, is, however, hoping that Grange, who had announced some time ago that the project, which was supposedly being funded by a Singapore-based agency would have been completed long before the February 26 scheduled date of the Gibson Relays, will find a solution.

The veteran administrator is hoping that a possible restructuring of work schedules will result in the timely completion of the renovation exercise.

"The only possible solutions at this point are perhaps that they try and bring forward the work schedule and deadline," McCook reasoned. "I don't know if that would require more people or whatever but the negative part of that also is that even one day of rain would set us back even further because the surface has to be totally dry when it is being laid."

There were several calls to The Gleaner newsroom yesterday from many overseas-based clubs, which have been making final arrangements to travel to the island for the meet. Some of the club officials said they had already made significant down payments on their travel and accommodation expenses and were not sure what would happen next.

McCook was cognisant of the inconvenience but underlined that a final decision will only be made after their meeting with Grange.

"There is certainly tremendous overseas interest around the whole situation but we want to speak to the minister ourselves and then we can make a final decision," said McCook

Grange, who was reportedly in St Elizabeth at a function for much of the day, was unavailable for comment up to press time.