THE Distance Medley Relay will replace the 4x800m at Saturday’s 30th GraceKennedy/Western Union STETHS Invitational Meet set for Santa Cruz.

Keith Wellington, a member of the organising committee, yesterday told the Jamaica Observer that the decision to add the event was to help schools post qualifying times for the Penn Relays, which has recently required that teams seeking to contest this event meet the qualifying mark.

“We have wanted to include the Distance Medley since last year since the Penn Relays organisers started requiring a qualifying time, but we were unable to until now,” Wellington told the Observer.

“We noticed that no other meet on the calendar included the event, so we thought it was our duty to include it,” Wellington added.

All field events, with the exception of the pole vault, will be contested at the meet, he told the Observer The discus throw, shot put, long jump and high jump in all classes as well as the javelin Open and if time allows, the triple jump, will be on show.

On the track, there will be the 100m, 400m, 1500m and the 400m hurdles, which will also see events for Under-17 athletes and the 4x400m.

Wellington said that up to yesterday, 45 schools, including the top five girls schools from the ISSA/GraceKennedy Champs, had sent in entry forms.

“We are expecting another great day of track and field and the entries so far indicate a packed day from the start,” he said.