Olympian Grace Jackson, Marie Tavares and Edna Atkinson will be honoured at the 19th staging of the Wesley Powell Track and Field Meet set to be held on December 10 at Excelsior High School in Kingston.

At the launch of the meet on Wednesday, organisers said that in keeping with the special focus on Women in the sport by World Athletics, Jackson, the 200m silver medalist from the 1988 Games in Seoul and who, for many years, has served as the Wesley Powell meet director will be recognized along with Tavares, Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) Honorary Secretary, first woman to hold that post at the JAAA, and Atkinson, a retired teacher for her service to Excelsior High School.

The meet is scheduled to begin at 8:30am and will have 71 events for high school and collegiate athletes in the 150m, 300m, 600m, 1000m, 3000m and 5000m. There will also be 4x300m relay, long jump, high jump, shot put and javelin.

Excelsior has the only full-size 9-Lane 400m track in Jamaica which was laid before the track at the National Stadium in 1961.

The JAAA has secured at least one international race for Jamaica’s men’s 4x100m relay squad as they attempt to a secure spot at the Tokyo Olympics later this year.

A Jamaican quartet will race at a World Athletics Continental Tour track and field meet to be held at Prairie View, Houston, Texas on May 25.

“So far Nigeria and Canada are down to compete in the race,” said JAAA General Secretary Marie Tavares. “But we understand that I least one other team will be involved.”

Jamaica is provisionally qualified in 11th position with the top 16 teams to be accepted into the relay pool at the Olympics. That qualifying time (38.15) was achieved in the semifinals of the IAAF World Championships in Doha, Qatar, 2019. 

The need for a race escalated after Jamaica was forced to withdraw from the IAAF World Relays which took place in Poland last weekend.

 This past weekend, a team of Asafa Powell, Julian Forte, Yohan Blake and Oshane Bailey posted a time of 38.33, the second-fastest in the world this year.