A significant reduction in the number of athletes that will be allowed to compete is among major changes set to be introduced at the 2021 GraceKennedy/ISSA Boys and Girls Championships scheduled for March 23 to 27, 2021.

Alternative dates of May 4-8 have also been set for the 110-year-old championships, should there be Covid-19-related spikes during the period. The 2020 championships were cancelled because of the pandemic.

Among major changes announced by the Inter-Secondary School Sports Association that are coming for the championships is that because of the restrictions, fewer than 1000 athletes will be able to participate. This is down from the more than 2400 athletes that are usually on show.

What this means is that for events like the sprints (100,200 and 400) only 32 athletes will be allowed to enter and will be comprised of the top-two regional athletes and the next best 24.

Meanwhile, only 24 will be eligible to compete in the hurdles and 800m events. The 1500m will only have 16.

However, the decathlon and heptathlon events will have the usual number of entries but only the top 12 from the field events will be allowed.