Athletes from all across the country will descend upon the Excelsior High School on December 9 to take part in the 20^th Wesley Powell Benjamins Track & Field Meet.

The meet which begins at 8:30 am is one of the earliest in the track and field calendar each season and is used by most coaches as a testing ground for a number of their athletes.

The Full size 9-Lane 400m grass Track, newly refurbished at a cost of $1.5 million, on which the athletes will run, will see them compete in running shoes as spikes will only be allowed for field events. The stance is being taken by the event organizers based on recent research.

There will be a separate warm-up and marshalling area and a Separate area for the Javelin throw and Shot put.

The meet was first held on December 5, 1998, as the demand for development meets in Jamaica became apparent and it has continued strong ever since.

The first meet saw 21 schools and 53 athletes competing and now participation has swelled to 1700 athletes representing 51 schools.

There will be 48 track events and 32 field events for both boys and girls.

The track events include the 150m, 300m, 600m, 1000m, 3000m Open for girls, the 5000m Open for boys and the 4x300m.

The field events contested will be the shot put, long jump, high jump, javelin throw and the pole vault Open for men.

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.